Little Life Things (Week[s] of 7/5/2014 - 7/18/2014)

Double Post!  We were on vacation and it was super difficult to make posts, so I'm doubling up here.

• We were in Portland for a wedding that occurred July 5.  It was a gorgeous, sweet, emotional wedding, and we were so glad to be able to have been in attendance.  We looked really good, too.

• After the wedding, we headed off to Vegas!  We went with two of our friends from Oregon, and met a few people there too.  Vegas was great, of course.  The highlight was seeing Evil Dead the Musical.  It was hilarious and perfect.  

Grabbing Ash's boomstick

• We went down to Fremont street, which I actually prefer to the strip.  It's cheaper, less crowded, and covered so my delicate redheaded complexion won't burn after three seconds outside.  

While there, I discovered how absolutely terrifying the cowboy is 

when his lights aren't turned on.  Yeesh!  Nightmare fuel.

• Also, we ate food.  We hit some buffets, we snacked, and we discovered the greatest little place on Fremont called Uncle Joe's (go there!).  

This pizza had 10 meats on it.

• Meanwhile, back in Maryland, a few things happened.  A giant thunderstorm happened and apparently a wind shear (???) swept through our neighborhood and took down a tree in nearly every yard.  We lost the majority of our ONE tree!

Noooooo I had so many plans for this shady space!

• Also, I got a NEWWW CAAAAAR!  I am very sad to leave my echo.  I've had that car since I was 16, it's the car I learned to drive on!  It drove me all through Oregon too.  But it was time for a change after 12+ years.  After much research and finagling, my new car is a Ford Escape!  My only requirements were: has air conditioning, is big enough for kids and sports equipment and stuff (I'm planning on keeping this one for another 10 years), has storage space, and mostly- HAS AIR CONDITIONING.  Did I mention that I needed my new car to have AC?  

Awkward picture is super awkward

Bonus Photos:

Sunflowers at the Bellagio

Dad sent this to me while we were gone.  He took away the kiddie pool 

and she tried to lay in her bowl instead.  Typical.  

When I took down my hair from the wedding...

Little Life Things (Week of 6/28/14 - 7/4/2014)

Vacation Edition!

June 28 to July 4

• We're in Oregon!  Scott grew up in Oregon, and his family lives here still.  I lived in Oregon for about 3 and a half years while I completed my master's program.  One of my good friends from grad school is getting married, so we get to visit our old home AND Scott's family, AND celebrate love love love! 

• My parents are dog-sitting Abby and Jack.  We took Abby to their house, where she is LIVING THE LIFE- as you can see, up there in her pool.  That photo was waiting for me when we landed.

• We went to one of our favorite bars with a bunch of our friends, and that was so nice!  

• We celebrated the Fourth of July with Scott's family- lots of fireworks and SO MUCH FOOD!  My contributions to the fireworks display were all cutesy girly ones with names like: "Unicorn," and "Girl Power," and my favorite one, which was in a heart shaped case with a princess on the cover called "Mini Mi Amor."  

Snow Photos- Snowtos?

We have had an absurd amount of snow since the beginning of 2014.  In fact, while I'm writing this, I'm currently on my- I think- seventh snow day from school.  The whole state of Maryland is under a state of emergency.  I have to say, I'm starting to get completely sick of it.  But you know who isn't?

This girl.

Abby is obsessed with snow.  She loves it.  She loves shoving her entire face in the snow, she loves trying to find her snow covered toys, she loves trying to eat icicles, she loves trying to catch snowballs.  And I love watching her have a blast.  So here's a few photos I've taken this winter with the snow and my delightful snow-mutt.

Something was creeping on our front porch- something with tiny feet

This icicle came off our gutter- we broke it off so it wouldn't fall and hurt someone!

And Babs got to enjoy it!

Little Life Things (Week of 7/26/13-8/2/13)

July 26 - August 2

Abby turned 4!

• Scott and I hosted a small family cookout in honor of my Dad's birthday.  

That's my little brother's best side.

• We discovered a LARGE hole in our back yard!  Covered it with a plank of wood so Abby won't crawl in and get stuck until someone can come look at it.
• Built the most AMAZING table with my dad.  I'm obsessed with it!
• We got our wedding photos!  I am SO excited and CANNOT WAIT to share them!
• Went on a Michael's binge!  Had to buy a bunch of gorgeous new frames for our wedding photos <3

• Celebrated Abby's birthday.  She turned 4!  
• Got my rings soldered together so now they are one ring to rule them all.  It cost all of 20 bucks, took less than 24 hours, and it absolutely THE BEST.
• Got my personalized/autographed copy of American Gods back from my friend.  I was unable to make it to the signing (still kicking myself over that) but my gracious frient took my book for me and god it signed.  

Favorite iPhone Pics of the Week

Jack photobombed a photo of one of my favorite corners

MELTED.

DIY Hallway Console Table

This table has been on my dream list for a year.  I wanted a table for this wall, but everything I found was too wide, making the pass-through cramped.  I finally pitched an idea to my dad- maybe we could make a table!  He was enthusiastic, and one day this past weekend, we got together and completed it!  He did all the hard parts- the math, finding out how much wood we needed, making the plan, etc.  I just stood around and played with power tools and paint.  I recorded as much of the process as I could, but this is not a step-by-step guide- mostly because I don't actually know what I was doing!  But please enjoy, and check it out, and be proud of me!  Because I am in loooooove with it.

Our makeshift work bench is a plank of wood on a kiln.  Not the flattest surface, but we do things our way.  That's kind of a theme in this family!

First step: Play with power tools!  Cut your boards!  Pretend you don't see the blatant disregard for safety precautions.  

Second step: Attach your boards.  We used wood glue first, and then made little holes with our drill, and finally nailed them together.  We mashed our nails down a little bit so we could fill it later.  This has a name, but I can't remember what it's called.  

Progress shot: This is the top of the table, upside down.  Also two of the legs, which we were using as a T-square.  Like I said, we do things our own way.

Attach the legs!  Again with the glue/drill/nails combo.  We didn't have to mess with the length of the legs at all, which made this really easy. 

Change of scenery.  We moved the whole process over to my house so we could see if I liked the height.  Spoiler alert: I did.  Then we patched the nail divots with wood putty, let that dry, and then hand sanded it all down flat.

Paint and/or stain the wood!  This paint was fun.  We have this cabinet in our living room, and it's one of my favorite things on the planet.  When choosing a color to paint this table, I wanted to get as close as possible to the cabinet.  They are on opposite sides of the room and I thought that would be a nice way to make the whole space feel more cohesive.  Plus, I really love the color.  I didn't want to take the cabinet apart to take a piece with me when buying paint.  I tried lots of things around my house, trying to match the color.  Of all the things in the world- a random candle was almost exactly the same shade.  So off I went with my candle, and home we came with some paint.  I also wanted to incorporate some of the wood color (walnut) because we have a lot of mix-matched wooden antique furniture in the living room, and once again I was going for something that would feel a part of the space and not just a random table in the hallway.

Boom!  Table is done.  To attach the bottom shelf, we used some regular little L-brackets.  We mounted the table to the wall using some command velcro strips.  I threw a couple of items up there so it doesn't feel so empty, and voila!  A completely custom piece built by me and my Dad.  It fits perfectly where I wanted it, and is the perfect width for the space.  Scott loves it too- he said that everytime he sees it he thinks, "that's a real solid table."  Score!

Now all I need is a picture for the frame, a potted plant maybe, and a floor vase of the left of the table! I also CANNOT WAIT for holiday decorating- how wonderful is it going to be to decorate this table for Halloween, Thanksgiving and... CHRISTMAS. 

Oh, and just for fun.... back when I was in the planning stages, I needed a visual/physical reference when I was trying to figure out my measurements (height/width etc).  Apparently most people will just draw it out with masking tape on their carpet.  I didn't do this, because 1) I didn't think of it and 2) I really needed it to be as close to reality as it could get.  I wanted to physically walk my body through the space and say "That doesn't feel crowded at all!"  So after a few minutes and some creative balancing skills, I came up with...

Console Table Prototype.  I don't know, I think they're very visually similar, don't you?

Happiness Unexamined

“And I believe happiness is the exact opposite of sadness, bitterness, and hatred: happiness should remain unexamined as long as possible.” 

Stephen King, The Tommyknockers

Yes, I am using a quote from Stephen King, master of horror/suspense/writing in general, as the inspiration of my blog title/life.  That may or may not set the mood for what may or may not come to transpire here one this one-of-trillions blog.  

Welcome to Happiness Unexamined.  My name is Alissa and I’m a 20-something newlywed (as of this writing, the wedding was 3 weeks ago and we haven’t yet even gone on our honeymoon) living in a rural-ish part of Maryland.  Now that the wedding is over and my career is changing (gulp), I am suddenly finding myself with something new.. something I believe people refer to as “free time”?  Which is wonderful news!  We are newlyweds!  We live in a house that has a lot of potential and we will probably be staying here a while!  I have huge dreams and plans, but not a lot of money and not a lot of marketable skills!  

I predict this blog is possibly going to be part catalog of DIY projects (successes and failures.. plenty of failures, I imagine), part dreams for future projects, a smattering of personal stuff, and a ton- a TON of photos of my completely adorable pets.  Jack is the sassy cat, and Abby is the kind of wild, smart but also kind of spastic dog.  Abby has a collection of bandanas.  Jack occasionally wears a tie.  

Here’s hoping you’ll stick around.  And also that I’ll finally keep a schedule.  And maybe clean my house.  Maybe.  Here’s a cute photo of Abby to entice you to return: