Legally Blonde's Proceedings

I've managed to watch two of the three DVDs I was hoping to watch this weekend. Maybe I'll get the third watched tonight... On Saturday, I watched "Bright Star". I am so enchanted by this movie. It is the story of John Keats and Fanny Brawne. Keats obviously being a poet, though not a successful one during his short lifetime. Fanny Brawne was the woman he loved and an oh so fabulous clothing designer. She was constantly sewing lovely frocks! It was like watching an 1818 version of Project Runway! I am still absorbing it and cannot come up with another word besides enchanting, so sorry to be repeating myself. Today, I watched "The Hurt Locker" and if enchanted describes how "Bright Star" left me feeling, then exhausted describes this movie! I feel like I have been in Iraq dismantling bombs all day! I'm still absorbing this too, but I think it is really a work of art because I never felt like I was watching a movie, but felt more like someone was...

This is what happens when Lola doesn't feel she gets enough attention on any given day... I come home to messes like this, and this... Ever wonder why God made her so darn cute? So I wouldn't strangle her when I come home to find she has shredded my new package of pink tissue paper or a Neiman Marcus shopping bag This is what happens when: (a) I'm really sick of seeing all the dead flowers in all the pots around this place (it looks like the Adams Family around here!), and (b) the stinky Paperwhites finally die... I get some lovely non-stinky flowers for my kitchen window! This is what happens when I think to myself, You know, I haven't made cookies in a very long time ... My house turns into a cookie factory on a Saturday afternoon! I made big hearts and little hearts... and a few sets of lips I had big plans to make them really fancy and pretty, but as you can see, that plan crapped out somewhere around hour 3 in the process!

TGIF! It hasn't been an immensely busy week, but I sure feel like it has! Maybe it is because this is the first FULL week of school- 3 classes on 3 nights. Whatever the cause, I'm excited to have a couple of days with NOTHING to do! Today actually is busy, so if I can just make it through, I have big plans for movies and cooking. My movie plans include knocking out my 3 netflix DVDs. They are 3 that I'm very excited about too! I still have to watch "Inglorious Basterds" and now have "Bright Star" which I've been dying to see for months and "The Hurt Locker". My cooking plans include cooking a beef and veggie stir fry (recipe from The Deen Bros. "Take It Easy" cookbook) and try out my new rice cooker/steamer that came in this week (yea!). I also plan to cook a pork roast for pulled pork. I figure I can make tacos and bbq sandwiches with it. I'm going to cook it in the crock pot with tomatillos, onions, garlic, cilantro, and lim...

This post is probably going to fall under the TMI (too much information) category, thus the title of the post TMI Thursday. Don't worry. I don't plan to make it a weekly post! Today's topic of TMI is underwear (panties, knickers, drawers, bloomers, whatever you want to call them). I buy all of mine at Gap Body. Have for years. I spend lots ($78) on my bras, so for the underwear, I hit up the bargain bins at Gap Body. I refuse to pay more than $1.99 a pair. I love to get them for less than $1.99 a pair. I hit up Gap Body around New Year's for some new undergarments. Turns out I've been wearing a size too large for the past 3 years, but that's another subject for another day (maybe next weeks TMI post....kidding, I'm kidding!). Because I always dig through the bargain bins for my purchases, I pretty much buy whatever color, pattern, etc. they have. I did draw the line once at a yellow pattern. I reminded me of pee. Pee and underwear didn't really seem like...

I may have mentioned this... If I haven't mentioned it, then you may have caught on anyway... But, this little sassafras Is a little bit (read: a lot) spoiled! I know I blogged about how she didn't need anymore toys for Christmas. Well this is how the toy situation stands post Christmas... AND pre-birthday! (Lord help us, we may have to add on to the house!) I swear that on any given day she has a third of these toys out and strewn all over the darn house. I actually did a round-up of toys today and I had to gather up three armloads of toys! I know, I know. Many of you are saying "Why don't you get rid of some of those?". She actually plays with them all. There will be things I forgot we had and I will see it sitting on the floor of some room. I have made a decision that we do not repair toys that get torn or worn out anymore (unless they are really important ones because we have a hierarchy of toys here in this house you know). And I know everyone says their kid ...

I ordered a camera bag some time back and I'm so excited that it finally came in. It seems like I ordered it forever ago, but the company custom makes them after you order them, thus it takes a couple of weeks before they can mail them out. They make lots of really cute bags... I thought several were really cute, but I was afraid to order a light colored background one, so I ordered this one instead... I didn't think it was the most adorable, but thought it was something that wouldn't show stains really bad and would go with just about anything you could be wearing. It is smaller than I thought it would be, but it will hold a camera and two lenses and will also hold the camera with the lens on it. I like that it is smaller than I thought because it can be toted around so much easier and even be crammed inside my carry-on bag when traveling. Further, I like that it doesn't have "Nikon" blazing from the side of it saying "Hello, expensive camera, come take...

Oh when the Saints, Go Marching In, Oh when the Saints go marching in... Let me first say that I do not follow football in the NFL. I follow NCAA football closely. NFL, not so much. I haven't even watched the superbowl in years (not even for the commercials). Really the only reason I normally know anything about NFL football is because of the constant droning on about the Cowboys that we get on our local news. BUT, I do know about those New Orleans Saints! How about that! I'm so happy for the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast that they have something so great to root for. They deserve it! And to see such a celebration in the Superdome considering how it was only a few years ago. I loved seeing the celebration on Bourbon St. last night post game. Oh course, I started thinking about what a great theme Super Bowl party you could have this year. Turn your house into a mardi gras festival with beads everywhere. Cook Jambalaya. Serve Hurricanes and Abita Beer. Perfect! I asked...

I have made a couple of purchases this weekend that I want to show you. First, I got some Valentines Day dish towels at Target. I have several sets of these I use during Christmas and January and have decided that they are really some of my favorite towels (maybe even ahead of my Williams-Sonoma towels). Now, I've made it my goal to have a set for every "season" or holiday so that I have some in the rotation year round. Here are the Valentines Day ones that I got... They have them in the traditional Red, Pink and White, and those were really cute, but I just loved all the colors in this set. You can find these at your local Target. They are $3.99 for a set of 2. Then I made my way to TJ Maxx and found some super springy shoes... They are by Sperry Topsiders (giggle), but I thought they were perfect for spring/summer. They can be worn earlier in the season with jeans and then later with capris, shorts, skirts, etc. I also have to add that they are really comfy. I find some...

Dear Blogger, Why the hate? I've been noticing for a while now that most of my posts aren't updating very quickly (if at all) on my loyal readers blog lists. I've done some research and it seems many people have this issue. Why can't you fix it? You are related to Google. I thought the folks at Google could do anything. Oh and while you are at it, please add spell check to the updated editor so that I can stop getting whiplash during my blog posts from having to toggle back and forth between the old and updated editor. Your frustrated blogger, Kara ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you have me on your blog list and it doesn't look like I've blogged in quite a while, there are three scenarios: (1) I won the lottery and ran away (though I'd probably blog an "over and out" post about it), (2) I'm dead, or the more likely version (3) Stupid Blogger isn't showing me the love (see above referenced ...

February always poses a decorating dilemma. I mean, I decorate for Valentines Day, but then I also want to decorate for Mardi Gras. What's a girl to do? This year, Fat Tuesday falls on February 16th, so I'll just have to make sure the Valentines Day comes down quick and get the Mardi Gras in full swing ASAP. Likely, only the Mardi Gras wreath and flags will be all that gets displayed this year. What I am going to do for Mardi Gras is finally getting around to making some Crawfish Etouffee. I've had the authentic Louisiana crawfish in my freezer for a while now, and the recipe sitting in my recipe box, but one thing has been holding me back...the rice. You see, I wanted to make it and have some GOOD rice to go with it. I don't love Minute Rice and I'm not even touching the microwave stuff. Every time I attempt to make "real rice" it turns out gummy. Gummy bears = good, gummy rice = yuck! It seems all my problems have been solved with an e-mail I got thi...

Productivity is up around our little firm this year. Well, at least for some of us... We finished the clean-up project today. We seem to have gotten the knack for working well in our "organized chaos", so I'm pretty sure now that we are actually organized, we won't be able to find a darn thing! Turns out our shredder just needed a nice LONG rest, and it was back up and running today. For a minute or two, we thought we were going to have to go rent a storage building to store our closed files, but they all JUST fit. Probably in 6 months of so, that will be something we have to do, as I am unwilling to give up another closet in the house for such things and I don't really have room in the garage. Of course I recognize that 6 months from now will put us in the throws of the Texas Summer Heat, but hey, we can save $300 on storage if we wait (remind me of this when I am complaining about dehydration from moving boxes into storage come June or July!). I'm tryi...

Yesterday was F&C's 5 year Firmiversary.  Well, maybe not yesterday exactly.  The only way we really keep up with it is that 5 years ago, on what would have been our first day "open for business", it was MLK day and we decided to take a holiday!  We're real motivated like that!  So every year, on MLK day we say it is our firmiversary. Probably much like a marriage anniversary, it seems like it happened yesterday in some ways and also a lifetime ago in other ways.  You probably recall this, but most of the work takes place in my home office.  We have another office, but only really go there to meet with clients.  We like to really bare bones our expenses and pocket money we save on fancier office expenses.  Since yesterday was a holiday, we celebrated big time today.  What did we do?  We did a MAJOR cleanout of the office.  We were highly productive all day (which is so unusual) and only stopped to make chicken...

I am sure glad it is a three day weekend. I'm such a big fan of three day weekends. I love it if I can get away...last year I was in one of my favorite cities, New Orleans. This year, I've kept it pretty low key. We've been pretty lazy... Watched a lot of these gals (Seasons 4 & 5)... I've done some cleaning out of the refrigerator and pantry... Who knew I had a hazardous material zone in my kitchen? Seriously...there was more in there that WOULD kill you than wouldn't! Catalina dressing dated 2006, I'm talking about you! I got crafty... I never get crafty.  For some reason, I decided to do some Valentine's Day crafts and painted these paper mache' heart boxes and L-O-V-E letters. Stay tuned to see how I use them in decorating (not because it's going to be awesome, but because I have NO idea right now!) I watched lots of CNN, but on Sunday took a break from the serious stuff and tuned in for one of my favorite things...an mov...

I purchased some Paper Whites for half price at Target's after Christmas sale. Over the past couple of weeks, I have been in constant amazement of these bulbs. First I had to keep them in the garage (well a cool dark place) until they sprouted. Then I put them in my kitchen window. Every day I couldn't wait to see how they had grown. The day when they really sprouted roots, they did so with such force that they shot the bulbs clear out of the dirt and had to be replanted! Can you tell, I've been like a kid with a science experiment? I've been taking photos of the progress, but of course, I must have accidentally deleted most of the photos. It's really too bad because some days, I swear, they would grow like 3 inches! Here's a photo of just a few days ago... Then yesterday they started to bloom and today they look like this... a close up... ummm, there is one little problem... they stink to high heaven! Okay, I'm kind of scent sensitive. Almos...

BEEEEEEEEP!  This is a Test.  I repeat, this is a test of the Legally Blonde Broadcasting System.  In the event of any real emergency... Okay, so I'm testing out a new way to post photos thanks to the help of Traci at Sweet Cheeky Designs .  She has been so nice to help me and we have been on the phone for an hour now hashing this out.  Okay, so we may or may not have discussed iphones, Sex and the City, Haiti, and Project Runway along with Blogger and Photoshop things during that hour! So this "new" system of posting photos is suppose to allow for the photo to post bigger and better.  This isn't actually one I took recently and not one with the new camera because those are on the desktop in my office and I've been fooling around with my laptop in the Living Room. It should go from this... to this... Excellent!  I think I may be sold (if I can ever re-create this magic without Traci on the phone!)

As I mentioned earlier this year, I am not a big fan or new year's resolutions, but instead thought I should be resolved all year long to do better and be better. Just for the record, I have managed to stick to my one new year's resolution and have used eye cream and moisturizer every single night of the year! I bring all this up because I need to be resolved to have more patience and be grateful for what I have. You will recall my total impatience in waiting on my new camera to be delivered. I have been experiencing similar impatience regarding a couple of other online purchases I have made. One finally came in today...my camera strap. Here are some pics from where I ordered it from (I took some pics, but this is the lazy way out!) This one is called "Garden Gate" and it really just spoke to me! I loved the pink, red, green, and lilac, but I wasn't entirely sure whether it was black or brown background when I ordered it. I didn't care because I was fine wit...

I'm a CNN junkie. Even on "non-news days", CNN probably runs on my T.V. for at least 4 hours a day. On days like yesterday and today, CNN is on for 8 hours plus. I can't help it. It is one of my addictions. Those poor people of Haiti. They were in such bad shape...and that was two days ago, before the earthquake. Today, it seems to just be devastated. You cannot watch without your heart breaking. They need so much help. They need our help. They need my help. They need your help. If you feel like you cannot do much, so why bother, keep in mind what I heard President Clinton say earlier today. In the aftermath of the Tsunami a couple of years ago, over a billion dollars was donated by Americans. You know what the average donation was? $56. Donate whatever you can. You can make a donation at many organizations, some of which I have listed below. On most, you can click the link and go straight to a donation page. In addition, you can text "HAITI" to " 90...

I've been taking photos of everything in an effort to try out my new camera. I need to read my Dummies book more and get into the more technical aspects, but for now, I'm still in Auto mode. Did you know that when it gets cold enough, ice crystals just form on all sorts of things? Like outdoor pillows... I thought they were pretty. Lots of Lola of course... Oh that sweet, sweet face! What will she ever do once we have replaced the crappy fence on that side of the yard? She loves to go be a nosy neighbor! My house looks like this 99% of the time. Toys, toys and more toys everywhere! The girl loves all of her toys! As you can see, she was getting pretty shaggy. I hadn't taken her to the groomer since before Thanksgiving. I really didn't like the way they had groomed her. She just plain looked awful! And then she was so nervous when I picked her up. I just didn't like the feeling of the whole place since it was under new management. I knew that I was going to ha...