A brief interruption

I'd like to announce that I've opened my own little blog shop, Yarn Good Time, because 1) I love to crochet and 2) I'm a sucker for a good pun. So click on the button to the right and see what you might like to snatch up for yourself!

House in progress: Bathroom edition

One of my new year's resolutions to myself was to the rest of my house in order. We've lived here for two years in May, but, to look at the guest bedroom, bathroom, and "office," you'd think we'd just moved in. My goal is to have those three rooms in order when all the family comes in for Scott's graduation in May. (He's going to be a master!)

We tackled the easiest room first: the bathroom.

Or at least, we thought it'd be easy. It took several failed trips to Target, all of which ended in throwing our hands up in frustration or gnashing of teeth, before we finally found what we'd been looking for.

First, here's what we were working with.

This bathroom started out as the catch-all from our apartment bathroom. When we moved, we got new things for the master bath and gave this one all the hand-me-downs. Our original shower curtain was pretty much the same color as the walls, though; so, in yet another frustration-filled Target stop, we bought this typeface one just to have something. It didn't help much.

Now the bathroom as a little life to it — the design equivalent of pinching your cheeks to get that fresh, awake look to your face. However, here is where we've reached a dead end. We're still looking for something to hang over the toilet, but we just can't settle (OK, it's more like agree) on what. Any suggestions are appreciated. (Scott's stipulation is that it can't be something you'd find if you Googled "bathroom decor.")

Winter doldrums

Wake me when it's March?

Every year near the end of January, I get tired of the cold, the gray, the blah. I succumb to the winter doldrums — the primary culprit for my recent case of blogger's block. I wish I were a bear, so I could just hibernate until it's all over with or could fly somewhere warm like the birds do. We just aren't meant to stick around when the temperature drops and the skies grow gray. That's my theory anyway.

So what can you do if you can't up and go to Jamaica for the next three months? Here are a few options.

1. Exercise. The lazy, winter fat-padded me ughs at this suggestion, but, as we all learned in "Legally Blonde," "Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. Happy people just don't shoot their husbands, they just don't." And happy people don't eat an entire jar of Nutella staring out into the great gray abyss wearing their bathrobe, either. Get up and get moving. Since no one likes to go running in 10 degree weather, find a local gym or workout in your own home. I've enjoyed Zumba for the Wii (a one-time $40 purchase versus a monthly gym membership. Plus no one witnesses my lack of coordination), and YouTube is full of workout videos. (Might I offer up the SparkPeople channel. Their 15-minute abs and six-minute butt-blasting workout are two of my favorites.)

2. Keep busy. While bundling up like that kid from "A Christmas Story" just to go out for dinner might not sound appealing, maintaining your friendships and staying busy is a great way to keep the winter blahs away. The worst thing you could do is isolate yourself. Go to dinner, see a movie, have your friends over and play games — anything to connect yourself with people. 

3. Start something new. Did you get a new kitchen gadget for Christmas? See an interesting craft on your favorite blog? See Miss Arkansas' yodeling ventriloquist act on Miss America? Would you like to learn to do the same? Well, take advantage of all your indoor time and whip up something yummy, cozy or creepy. I've been crocheting like a crazy person since the temperatures dropped, and it's nice to have something to point at and say, "Hey! I'm productive." 

4. Day dream. If all else fails, just think of somewhere warm and sandy. That always gives me the boost I need.

(If you can up and go to Jamaica, though, give me a call. I'm small and won't take up much room. You'll hardly know I'm there.) 

Snow day!

 About 3-4 inches in our yard

One of the joys of working in higher education is that I get some of the perks of being an educator without really having to educate. A snow day is one of those perks. When the flurries finally showed up at our house (5 p.m., right when they were supposed to), I already had my fingers crossed for an unexpected three-day weekend. 

Although I didn't sleep with my pj's inside-out, the guaranteed way to conjure up a snow day as my sister and I learned years ago, the snow still kept me out of work today. 

 

I decided to try something new on my first snow day of the year — snow cream. I'd never made any before and thought it'd be a nice way to celebrate my snowed-in state. The steps I used can be found here, but I divided everything by four since I was just making it for myself.

I mixed 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup milk and 1/2 tsp. of vanilla in the mixing bowl before I went outside.

Then I scooped 2 cups of snow from the backyard and added it to the bowl. (The site I used stressed to avoid snow of the yellow variety.)

I mixed the snow into the mixture until it had a creamy texture. I must have looked like a crazy person, crouched out on my patio in my pj's, rain boots, giant scarf and a mixing bowl. This is why I need kids on a snow day. No one thinks a grown woman doing these things is crazy when kids are around.

Once inside, I quickly transfered the snow cream into a bowl and added some chocolate chips for good measure. I had to eat quickly as the snow cream was quickly turning into snow soup. It was really good!

I hope you had a safe and warm snow day! Now I guess I'll go do something productive, like the laundry.

View from the front door

Bittersweet

Tuesday night was a sad night in the Hannigan home. Our beloved Razorbacks just couldn't seem to get it together (or catch the football) and lost to Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl. By the way we drug ourselves the house during the following 24 hours, you would've thought our puppy ran away or that someone punched our grandma. But, alas, there's always next year.

Let's recap the better times that got us here in the first place, shall we?

There was the first game of the season and our long weekend adventures, followed by my first visit to War Memorial Stadium where we sweated a lot and almost lost the truck. Then we tailgated and played bean bag toss leading up to our loss against Alabama. I compiled a list of my favorite football cheers, in case you found yourself lacking in that department. We enjoyed the last game of the season with Rusty and Cassie (it was also her first Razorback game), and then we trekked to Starkville to watch the Razorbacks take on Mississippi State in a nail-biting, double overtime victory.

Despite our lost, I'm still proud to say "it's hard to be humble when you're an Arkansas Razorbacks fan!"



See you next year!

So you say you've got a resolution

Happy 2011 everyone! Hope you had a happy and safe time ringing in the new year. I stayed in and off the streets as my mom has it drilled into my head that all the crazies and drunks will be on the roads that night.

And since the new year is now upon us, so are the ever-dreaded new year's resolutions. Usually, I try not to set one since it'll probably fall by the wayside by Jan. 3, but this year I've decided to set a few in hopes that at least one will stick with me until March. Maybe having them in writing will help me out this time.

Here's my list:

1. Read the Bible in its entirety. I'm ashamed to say that while I've read every Harry Potter book at least twice, I've never read the book on which my entire life is based completely through even once. I asked Scott last night if he'd read the Bible completely. He said that, while he had never gone from start to finish in a set amount of time, he was sure that over the years he had read everything in it. I don't feel like I can say the same. I'm sure there are passages that I've never seen before, and I want to remedy that. I've found a website with several different lists for daily reading (start to finish, chronological, some New Testament and some Old Testament, etc.) and have the chronological list printed and ready to be marked off.

2. Run a 5K. My on again, off again love/hate relationship with my treadmill has been well documented here (like this or this), but I'm determined to stay the course this time and run at least one 5K this year. Once that's marked off, I'm toying with the idea of a 10K, but I'm not going to let my eyes get bigger than my stomach — or my running shoes or whatever.

3. Complain less. While this is one of those unquantifiable goals, I want to stop myself from being such a Debbie Downer. If I can stop myself from complaining at least once a day, I think that would be a big improvement and would probably cut back on other complaints throughout the day. Most of the time, it's because I don't have anything else to say, so I feel the need to moan about the weather, my shoes, the computer, or whatever. I don't want most of my conversations with people to be negative, griping ones. I want to be a more positive person and for my speech to reflect that.

Have you set a resolution for 2011? What is it? I promise to encourage you in yours if you help me with mine. Let's make 2011 a great one!

Christmas Card Conundrum

If you haven't already found one of these in your mailbox (or we didn't send you one — awkward), this little lovely is the 2010 Hannigan Christmas card.

I didn't think about it until the batch arrived and I started stuffing them into envelopes, but is it a little conceited that beside a picture of us we have, in large type, the word "joy"? That joy is easily attained just by finding our faces in your mailbox? However, we are the couple who, for our first Christmas, gave picture frames to our family members so that they would be able to frame and display our wedding pictures. (Hey, we'd just gotten married 10 days before!) And then, for our second Christmas, we gave pictures of ourselves to our family members (these were also accompanied by frames, this time Christmas themed).

So, are we vain? Well, when you look this good, I like to think of it as a public service.

(Sometimes sarcasm doesn't translate into type very well, so might I emphasize that that last line is meant to drip with it. Add a heavy eye roll just to drive home the point.)

And while we're on the subject of Christmas cards, here is how we're displaying ours this year. It beats laying them along the kitchen counter like last year.  Do you see yours?