warning: rant rant rant rant rant. rant.

so my husband buys a new sound system and some speakers for the new car, we're pimpin it out yo. so anyway, last monday it gets installed. we go out to the car and there's no ipod connector, which is why we bought the freaking thing in the first place. so we walk back in and the guy says, oh, no one told you, that part is on back order. really? nice. so we insist we want it by this weekend for our trip home. ok, he says, they can do that. and we think they can.

then this weekend i notice that the stupids there put a few gashes in the dashboard while they were installing the system! i wouldn't be steamed if the car hadn't been 3 days old when i dropped it off....so i call and complain and they say, we'll take a look at it. now let me explain a little something here, this WAS NOT a cheap system. and they charged us for the installation. and this is supposed to be a professional place, not some corporate chain. best buy is looking like a much better option now.

so i've been on the phone with these guys all morning and nothing. they don't have the part. they're trying to track it down. they suck. and the husband and i are seriously debating making them uninstall everything and reimbursing us (fixing the dash) and then going elsewhere. UGH. end rant rant rant rant rant. rant.

feel like falling

it's cold and rainy today. i've been chilled since this morning: two cups of tea and some pad thai later, i feel better. in fact, i feel pretty stinking happy. why? because i love fall. and it feels like fall today. i drink tea in the fall and wear light sweaters and take brisk walks. the city streets start to empty and the leaves start to turn and i daydream all day long about living in a cottage in the mountains. i bake apple pies and buy candles that smell like pumpkins. i truly, honestly, deeply love fall. and it's almost here. (and i'm almost 29...)

take-out and out takes

well. my kitchen doesn't belong to me right now (and hasn't since friday). it belongs to paint cans and plastic tarps. i can't get to anything. honestly. i managed to grab a couple of bottles of water this morning but i didn't cook a single meal this weekend. and now i have to throw out a perfectly good piece of cod. well. it was good. five days ago. we're painting the ceiling which we thought would be easy. we were stupid. it's not. i mean, the actual painting is easy, it's all the prep and clean-up and wait time that's the pain in the butt.

so for now i'll fill my life with chinese food, poseidon (good movie) and a cool artist called 'jem'. check her out on itunes MB, you know you want to...

oh and i completely failed my 21 day challenge. i think i actually worked out about ten of my 21 days. so every other day or so. i'm such a failure! that's ok, i'll just start over. every monday.

changerific

mud room, originally uploaded by tinkerellen.

i took a day off yesterday and this is what we did with it. This is our mudroom/laundry room. so depending on how good of friends we are, this may be the first room or the last room you see. so i wanted it to look nice. even though it's mainly for doing laundry or putting on your shoes. and we did the entire thing with leftover supplies. in other words, besides a soar back, this cost us nothing.

paint the blues away

so the husband and i are craving change. seriously. for a year we've been mentally preparing to move across the united states and we all know what a big letdown that's been. for right now we're staying put, and in four months, when the snow gets here, it's going to suck.

soooo we spent the night thinking up house projects. we have a couple of things that NEED to be done, but several that we would like to do. so i think we're going to paint a couple of rooms that could use it, redo the bathroom, and then i might take on the challenge of painting the kitchen cabinets white. not like trading spaces paint, where it peels off in a month, but serious painting. i'm just wondering how it'll look going over textured wood? i took a photo of the kitchen this morning so i can fake it in photoshop...

21 day challenge: day fifteen

fifteen, originally uploaded by tinkerellen.

day fifteen of my 21 day challenge. i'm almost there but i'm still not sure if i'm creating a habit. it's difficult working around a schedule. plus, i've had to make it in earlier to work lately so it makes working out in the a.m. difficult. BUT i'm still trudging through. i didn't work out this weekend, and this past week was pretty busy. i still got a few days in. better than nothing. and it's hard to beat myself up over spending time with good friends.

i'm already thinking about my next challenge since there's so many things about myself that i need to work on. getting my business organized and going, devotions, finishing projects, a cleaning schedule, planning meals, etc.

this weekend was filled with rain. and movies. we picked up my new car and i love it. it's fancy pants. it has 6 cupholders. 6! and a sunglass holder. and pep. lots of horses under the hood. the only complaint i have is the stereo isn't ipod ready, so we have to get that figured out before we head home for the weekend. i am not lugging all my cd's around again. no sir.

friday favorites: mistakes and failures

chopsticks, originally uploaded by tinkerellen.

these chopsticks came with my last order of thai food. along with several humorous misspellings is chopsticks as 'chcosticks'. is that anything like chocosticks. cause if they're chocolate, i'll take another.

i'm on day 12 of my challenge. i printed out some of my pages lastnight so i'll get started on my journal this weekend. 12 days delayed. very much my style. but i plan on actually finishing this project. very much not my style. i've worked out 8 out of 12 days, so that ain't bad. the past few days have been schedulely challenged, so i just haven't had time. it happens.

picking up the new car tomorrow am. taking a couple of friends shopping all day, so see how much i can actually fit in the cargo space. a table? ten shopping bags? a floor lamp? a puppy? we'll see...

happy weekending...

waiting for me

subaru, originally uploaded by tinkerellen.

at the dealership: a black one with tan interior. and heated seats! this saturday we'll go down and test drive and if we love it it's ours! (and then the isuzu is someone elses 21mpg problem....)

broken communication

i'm on day 9 of my challenge {didn't get to my art journal yet, oops} and doing great. i'm not a fan of running, but i'm seeing big results in it. unfortunately, i've lost some weight in the past few days {the husband has too, but he has a little room to spare}, although it's not enough to worry about. it is kind of surprising since i ate like crap all weekend. BUT i did work out both days. i just wasn't expecting it.

we're taking a day or two off and going home for memorial day weekend. we're also hoping {well really, i'm hoping} to get a new car before we go. we have the suv for the winter and the hyundai for the summer {both paid off, woot!}, but i've been wanting a hybrid of both for a couple of years now. the gas mileage and handling of a car, with the space of an suv. luckily, there is such a vehicle: the subaru forester. sure it screams yuppy, but i drove it a year or so ago and loved it. SO, maybe we'll get one soon.

i dropped my phone this past weekend. i've been wanting a newer one {mine was about tres years old} but i didn't want to be forced into one. oh well. i got the same one as my husband's, so we can share chargers, ect... i wanted the slim little pink razor, but i wasn't willing to slap down 300 bucks on a phone. come on. seriously? so i'm thinking of painting mine pink, though that might void the warranty. yeah, i'm pretty sure it would.

i'm currently addicted to project runway. i am. i should be ashamed. but i'm not. it's hilarious.

friday favorites: crafty crap

crafty crap, originally uploaded by tinkerellen.

this past weekend i moved my office to the basement so i could work while spending time with the husband {only technically with, but better than being in opposite levels of the house}. the cool thing is my old office became my new craftroom/studio. i still have some organizing to do, which leads me to my favorites for today: organizational gadgets and all things crafty.

have a good weekend. i'll be spending mine on business junk.

21 day challenge: day five

21_day_5.jpg, originally uploaded by tinkerellen.

i woke up. and made it to the gym this morning {i yawned the whole time but so what} even though we were home late due to the husband's heated theological discussion with a fellow church member. i also told him all about the challenge on the way home and the community of people who participate, etc. he thinks it's a great idea. he might even start a challenge himself. although i highly doubt i'll see any kind of art journal in his future...speaking of, i hope to get time to work on mine this weekend, everyone else's is so inspiring, i want my own little book i can create and hold and show off.

mucho importante

yes, my second post for the day but i feel this is ever so necessary for everyone to read.

it's a word of advice: never never NEVER switch to vonage phone service. not only do they never work, but they never work. what's the point of paying for a phone service if there's no dial-tone? pretty stinking useless if you ask me.

21 day challenge: day four

21_day_4.jpg, originally uploaded by tinkerellen.

day four! i feel great too. except i'm so tired. and craving chocolate. but we all know what that means. (no i'm not pregnant, gosh..) anyway. running is great. for the husband and i it's a nice time to catch up on the day, no tv, no distractions, just pavement. it's also a good time to discuss. i like this new habit we're making together. oo la la. and lastnight i actually ran the entire stretch, no stopping! big accomplishment for me. and i can feel my lungs hating me less and less each time we go.

so i'm also throwing in eating better and drinking more water. which i've been doing fairly well. considering i've needed to go grocery shopping for about two weeks now...

if you want to explore the {21} day challenge a little more..

(i've been using photoshop brushes made by this really cool guy to create my pages)

keeping fake things alive.

fake_chiapet.jpg, originally uploaded by tinkerellen.

look at how well my fake chia pet is doing!

21 day challenge: day three

21 day challenge, originally uploaded by tinkerellen.

so i slept in late this morning BUT, i needed to. i've been so exhausted lately. i need a day or two to just catch up and relax. ie: i rented the new pride & prejudice movie (post colin firth, yum) and have not had time to watch it yet. so it's late now and i have it for another 5 days. i'm planning to watch it tonight after i hit the gym for some cardio and a short run with the husband...(so i'm not failing on day three, i promise!)

finally sent out the prize winners loot yesterday...it's well worth the wait BUT next contest i will have a premade box of awesomeness to send out immediately after announcing a winner...keep an eye out for that post.

21 day challenge: day two

21 day challenge, originally uploaded by tinkerellen.

since technically this is my second day! like i said in the previous post, i woke up and went to the gym this morning! it was really hard to roll my lazy butt out of bed, but i did it and it feels great!

21 day challenge: day one

21 day challenge, originally uploaded by tinkerellen.

i've been wanting to do this: 21 day challenge and even though i'm about 6 days behind i'm doing it anyway...

i have tons of good habits i want to create, but i'm picking 'running/working out' for this one. i have a hard time being consistent with anything, so this is more difficult than it seems...yesterday the husband and i ran together and this morning i woke up and hit the gym...sooo, the past two days have been successful!

here's the quote from the first day, thanks to rhonna:

we've been adopted.

by a cat. she belongs to some neighbors up the road, but morning to night she's always at our house. at first we would let her in the house but she would debate whether or not to come in. now, when we're trying to leave or go to bed, she'll bolt in the door or she won't leave.

this morning i heard her crying, so i opened the door fully expecting to see her staring up at me like usual. but she wasn't there. i could still hear her, so i stepped outside and there she was, on the roof, pacing back and forth. i coaxed her down and then let her in the house for tea and biscuits. really it was just some water. (i don't feed her so luckily i can avoid a situation like MB's...)

salem

salem, originally uploaded by tinkerellen.

so the last major stop on our trip was salem, mass. it was a pretty focussed town. meaning that all the shops and historical sites had something to do with the witch hunt or modern day wiccas. still, it was interesting to see.

apparently, women would garden with a broom, using the stick to make holes, and the wisk to brush the dirt back over the hole. they would then jump with the broom in their hands, straight up into the air, and how high they jumped indicated how high their crops would grow...people would see this from a distance and it would look like they were flying in the air on a broom. there. now you know some cool history for halloween.

the last day we spent at IKEA. yes, yes, three hours at a store. it was so much fun though. we should have brought our cameras in but i didn't want to get ourselves kicked out when there was so much to buy...

thus ends my girl trip. it was fun. we laughed. we talked about things way to private to talk about. we ate fun foods. we bought stupid t-shirts. and now i'm actually looking forward to a bit of relaxation.

boston: favorite photo

boston, originally uploaded by tinkerellen.

krista trying some sashimi (i think). you know, the slab of raw fish layed over rice?

boston

boston, originally uploaded by tinkerellen.

well, here we are in boston. that's me with the boston cow. actually there were a bunch of these cows everywhere, all painted different. krista was taking pics of each one until she realized her memory card was full and pictures of painted cows weren't all that important. boston was beautiful and so was the weather. we had breakfast in the museum of science, and it really is amazing what you remember from childhood, like the gift shop or the electricity generator. krista enjoyed boston's quaintness compared to nyc's dinginess. so did i. it was a nice paced day. but alas, our trip had struck the mid-point already...

anyone have...

the just like heaven soundtrack? i'ld be willing to trade off for something you've been looking for...(if i have it). email me: tinkerellen@yahooDOTcom.

block island: favorite photo

block island, originally uploaded by tinkerellen.

block island

block island, originally uploaded by tinkerellen.

being a rhode island native and never having been to block island i was most excited about this day of our trip. we boarded the ferry in a little town called galilee, which i believe my uncles fished from. i made sure to grab some del's lemonade and some clam cakes for the trip (rhode island delicacies), krista loved both. then on the island i treated her to a lunch of quahogs and stuffed sole, so it was seafood all around.

we rented this moped which is a lot harder than it looks. i managed to nearly kill myself in front of the instructor on my test run and made my way back to the shack assuming he wouldn't give me the keys after that little disaster showing. BUT he handed them over and yelled 'have a great time' and i thought 'don't you mean have a great death?' it ended well though (even with krista on the back) after i finally got accustomed to it all, and at top speed we hit 28mph! (love how dorky we look with our little helmets...)

we were both sunburned by the end of the day, but my dad was there to welcome us off the ferry and we made our way to providence to meet up with some old friends for dinner, so it all ended very very well. i loved block island and plan on returning as much as i can when we finally settle back home...

new york city: favorite photo

new york city, originally uploaded by tinkerellen.

new york city

new york city, originally uploaded by tinkerellen.

after finally finding parking we ventured on to the empire state building. i was nervous, due to my fear of heights. not necessarily being up high, more falling from up high. but the line moved quickly and before we knew it we were looking over as much of manhattan as we could see through the haze. it was an amazing experience that i probably wouldn't have done on my own. (the free tickets helped a bit too)

the rest of the day was hot. we sweat a lot and walked a lot and stopped a lot for water. we hit some smaller vendors and made it all the way to central park where we employed a bicycle tour. and then the buggy got a flat. but we found help in a couple other bike drivers and were soon on our way. then we hopped the subway and booked it out of there in time to sit through 2 hours of traffic. the big city leaves a big film on your skin at the end of the day. maybe that's why they call it the big apple.

those were rose-colored times alright

i'm back from my trip and feeling antsy (?). i predict a new blog header in the next few days. i also can't wait to get through my photos from the weekend. and to hang my new IKEA roman shades. the trip was great and i plan on writing a huge post about it since there's so much to tell. (like the moped incident, or the cut-out head on a stick, or the view from the empire state building...) i'll take it a day at a time though, starting tomorrow.