Simply Monday

Mondays can be rough. The weekend is never long enough to get everything crossed off my 'to-do' list, and people at work are often a tad grouchy. But simple things can make even a bleak Monday a bit brighter.

Today, I loved my newly painted finger nails,

*photo by me

giggled at my cat-in-a-box,

*photo by me

oogled my neighbor's glowing florals

*photo by me

and drooled over this baking pan set from Ikea.

**photo from Ikea

That still makes me smile.

Most of the critical things in life, which become the starting points for human destiny, are little things. - R. Smith

J'adore

*from WisDoc's Flickr Photostream

I think that this location, coupled with this drink

**photo by me

would be a perfect combination. I am obsessed with the idea of spending multiple days by the beach sipping frozen margaritas, daquiris and other delicious and fruity {alcoholic} drinks. Fortunately, Mr. Pony whipped up a watermelon margarita for me to indulge in this urge. Of course, now its 5pm and I'm rather inebriated. *sigh* Must. Build. Tolerance. {then go on 2 week vacation}. Yay!

If life gives you limes, make margaritas. - Jimmy Buffett

*photo by WisDoc
**photo by me

Style is...

having hors d'oeuvres for dinner. Only hors d'oeuvres. Mr. Pony said that he was going to try a new recipe with smoked salmon, and this is what he came up with. It was simply delicious! Now we just need to move forward to having only dessert for dinner!


Tell me what you eat, I'll tell you who you are. - Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

*photo by me

This is how I feel right now. I'm glad I won't be working for a couple of days, and I have some things I want to get done.

The Pony Weekend To-Do List
1) early am farmer's market- support local producers Yay!
2) reorganize desk
3) mow yard
4) play with four-legged beasties
5) do something creative- I don't know what yet, but I want to add something beautiful to our home!

What will you be doing this weekend?

There aren't enough days in the weekend. - Rod Schmidt

*photo by a friend, taken in Rome

Fall

Crisp morning air. Sunbursts of leaves. Tantalizing scents of apple cider and hot chocolate. Oh Fall, how I miss thee. And once more, living in Central Nowhere, I shall mourn thy absence. {dramatic mournful pause}

But seriously- we don't get fall here, so I may have to force myself to feel my usual autumnal thrill by any means possible. Step 1) buy apple cider scented candles and place strategically around house. Step 2) accessorize home with seasonal decor. Step 3) alter seasonal shift of current climate to do exactly what I want. Wait. Scratch that- steps 1 and 2 will probably have to do for now. Maybe I'll make this easy and start with a wreath on the door- if I move too quickly towards seasonal decor, Mr. Pony may scent my need to buy prettys and attempt to hide my purse. {the hunt begins}

from twoinspireyou

from BHGfrom BHG {with a DIY tutorial}

Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns. - George Eliot

*photos from Etsy and BHG

Day of the Triffids

The people we bought our house from were not terribly excited about taking care of the bushes in their yard.The result was something out of a B horror movie {which, incidentally, haunted my dreams for several weeks when I saw it as a small child}. Not that I'm fantastic with a huge pair of pruning shears, but I think the end result is much prettier!It didn't take much time, but now they look like regular plants- not the kind that go crazy and eat people. Huzzah!

Earth laughs in flower. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

*photos by me

This was not me.

Up until the last few months, I did not mind going to the dentist. But recently (as in, the weekend we closed on our house), one of my molars broke off as we enjoyed a fine repast of lo mein and broccoli beef (damn fortune cookies). What followed was a round of bullshit with a ridiculous dental office, battles with a corrupt insurance company (but of course, we don't need any sort of medical reform... *blink*), and, finally, some time spent in the chair of a less ridiculous dentist.

Of course, this dentist says I have a really small mouth- the first time EVER that I've been told that. The result of that is that after getting my permanent crown affixed and a filling done, my mouth now feels like a Bengal Tiger had his paw in my mouth for 5 hours. For 3 hours afterwards I was speaking around a 3lb wad of cotton, and Mr. Pony was laughing without restraint as I mangled 'B's and garbled 'D's. *smack*

Several hours later (4.5 of that spent at work, 2 watching a movie and 2 staring aimlessly at the wall wondering how to make my face stop hurting), I think I'll take some Tylenol {or a strong margarita} and go to bed to dream sweet dreams of non-tooth rotting Pepsi and magic wand dental work.

If suffering brought wisdom, the dentist’s office would be full of luminous ideas. - Mason Cooley

*photo from Seth W.'s Flickr photostream

NEED

Buy it here, then send it to me. Kthnxbai.

Everything in the world exists in order to end up as a book. - Stephan Mallarme

*photo from spoonfulofchocolate's Etsy shop

Who would have thought...

Mr. Pony and I can be particular about some things. This is one of those things.

The cat needs a baby gate across the door to 'her' room ASAP or feline mayhem may ensue... and we already have enough of that.

We thought we had a solution in a DIY option,but the costs for all the wood and our original idea of wooden lattice ended up being prohibitive. Besides the cost, lattice didn't end up looking that nice for an indoor furniture-ish item. So we moved back to the world of pre-made baby gates and... they pretty much all suck. Mr. P and I are on gate number 3, and none have worked well. The first worked in our apartment, but it ripped up the doorframe; the 2nd stripped out on the tension tightener thingys; the 3rd was hard to open (it had a built in gate like the one above) and as we put it up, Pepsi shoved her head through the bars- safety? What is that? So we are moving on... again... *sigh*

The problem is that the stores in Central Nowhere seem to all carry the same things, and we are a bit leery of ordering something that we can't return- we've had a run of craptacular gates so far! Well Mr. Pony found one today that we can return to PetCo if it doesn't work, and it looks fairly nice, so *fingers crossed* this one better work!I think its a good thing we don't have kids- if we were picking something like this out for our child, I'm fairly certain we'd NEVER find something we liked enough!

When choosing between two evils, I always like to try the one I've never tried before. - Mae West

*photos from Amazon

GIMPing along

So I'm trying my hand at some photo editing with the free program GIMP, and my abilities are coming along slowly... like the tortoise... but I'm sure I'll get there! I followed this tutorial to mess with one of our pro wedding pictures, and I'm pleased with the results!

My magical edited version:


Original:
Photograph: a picture painted by the sun without instruction in art. - Ambrose Bierce

*photos by Haute Foto

Internet inspirations

Sometimes I have trouble finding interesting things to look at on the internet. I know, I know- all the stuff that is out there, and I hit roadblocks? Well Brandy over at The Lovely List wants to help people like you and me find things to inspire, delight and overall improve our internet {life} enjoyment. Head on over there, and you might even get a chance to win something wonderful!

Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy. - Anne Frank

*photo from The Lovely List

Books and flowers galore!

*

As hard as this may be to believe, I can obsess over things that are NOT in any way related to our house. It takes effort, but I try to be normal once and again. My newest obsession is starting a new reading list- between work, wedding, house-hunting and moving, I've gotten pretty slack on my bookworming. I recently found out that one of my favorite authors is about to publish another entry in a wonderful series!

**

Diana Gabaldon's Outlander books are quite arguably my favorite non-Harry Potter books out there, so I'm excited to read the new one. Its been a while since I read them, so I'm starting in on them again in preparation for the release {on September 22) of An Echo in the Bone. If you even moderately enjoy historical fiction with a touch of fantasy thrown in, you ought to read these books. They aren't for the faint of heart- the author knows how to write a lengthy tome- but the result is a very engrossing read!

***

Other than books, I've become obsessed with pretty flowers. Ok, a confession must be made- this does relate to our house. I want to put pretty things around our house- the previous owners let the landscaping go a bit down the crapper, and I yearn to rectify that issue. The newest fascination is Little Gem Magnolias. They are gorgeous, evergreeny bushes with lovely white flowers, and having them around my house would be dreamy. The sucky part? I'm supposed to wait to plant them until early spring. *sigh* I think I'll focus on my library and book list- huzzah for immediate gratification!

A home without books is a body without a soul. - Marcus Tullius Cicero

*photo from tinuviel's Flickr Photostream

**photo from Amazon
***photo from Peter Grevstad's Flickr Photostream

Adore

Right now, I adore this bar. It folds out to this, which holds more than we need to hide away one's alcoholic tendencies. Plus, it does so in style. As I mentioned previously, we are currently mis-treating a perfectly good window seat. All of our bar ware is on the seat, and our booze is in a box sitting next to the dining room table. We look klassy. Yes, with a 'k'.


I have daydreams of turning the window seat area into a lovely reading/food photography nook, which I'd like to make resemble this peaceful image

with the addition of this
and thisand something like this

But refer back to our starting image for what is required to make this all happen. If we can hide all our alcoholic{ism} gear in something that is both functional and pretty, I think I'll be halfway to my peaceful reading room goal. Of course, the only things Mr. Pony and I can find that we like the look AND the quality of stuff from places like Crate & Barrel- not bad in and of itself, but our budget, especially after buying the house, doesn't really leave room for such a store. *runs off to purchase a money tree*

Dreams are free, so free your dreams. - Astrid Alauda

*photos from Crate & Barrel and Pottery Barn

Pottery Barn= <3

We need lots of things to make our house look 100% awesome. Whats on my wishlist?

This would look smashing in our bedroom- I want to make a reading nook on one side of the room, but the cat loves to chew on things- book corners, shoes, pretty decorations. This, or a suitably vintage barrister bookcase, would let both of us enjoy the area!

Of course, no reading nook is complete without a smushy overstuffed chair! This, with a storage ottoman, would be fabulous.

My old desk and I have kind of broken up- its a rolltop, I use a laptop... we just aren't the same as when we first got together. However, this desk adds a classic yet modern vibe, plus it the back of it won't keep my laptop from opening.

We don't really need a new coffee table but... this one looks like it came straight out of a library. How can I not want it?

Right now, all of our barware and alcohol is sitting on a window seat made for growing pretty things and sipping coffee {imagine something like these}. I'd like to liberate the beauty of that spot for pondering, so we need a buffet for all our boozing (or a barffet, as Mr. Pony has dubbed it). *sigh* Of course, all this stuff is from Pottery Barn, so the likelihood of me getting all {any} of these exact things = zero. But a) inspiration is a good thing and b) a woman can dream, right?

Dust is a protective coating for fine furniture. - Mario Buatta

*photos from the Pottery Barn website

Mini Vacation

Ms. Pony's recipe for a mini vacation:

1) Hi-jack someone you love (husband, cat, etc)
2) Curl up in bed and go to sleep at night as normal
3) Stay there until at least 10am the next morning, lazing about pointlessly

Mr. Pony and I did this for the first time in months. Literally months. I think I'd forgotten how much I love (with a heart as the 'o') sleeping in! It was quite refreshing. Of course that (and this mean, mean post) only make me want a real, away-from-it-all vacation all the more. *sigh* I can't win!

A good laugh and a long sleep are the best cures in the doctor's book. - Irish Proverb

*photo by me

Who is in charge here?

Mr. Pony and I have lots of projects we'd like to do.
1) Finish painting.
2) Do touch-ups.
3) Put up art & decor

But above all, we MUST free the cat- she has been demanding liberty for several days now. The problem? Darling Pepsi chews on lots of things- shoes, cords, books- and the more expensive, the better. Thus, she lives in our master bedroom unless otherwise supervised, but as you can see, she is eager to experience the outside world. Mr. Pony and I would also like to have our door open once in a while, so we plan to make something like this to put in front of our doorway. So, *tada*! We have our weekend project! Stay tuned for results.

Cats are kindly masters, just so long as you remember your place. - Paul Gray

*photo by me

Time flies!

It has already been over 2 months since Mr. Pony and I tied the knot, and I don't know where the time has gone! All that planning and the event is over and done with! But to my great enjoyment, pictures are still rolling in! Mr. P's father took some pretty cool pictures and we just got a final CD of them, so I'm playing with some new pretties! Enjoy!


There is nothing half so sweet in life as love's young dream. -Thomas Moore

*photos by Mr. Pony's father