Friday randomness (please pardon the mishmash of thoughts, this is just how my brain works these days):

Daylight savings time has kicked my butt.  I’m exhausted in the mornings and not ready to go to sleep at night.  In the mornings when the alarm goes off, Charlie looks at me like “do we have to get up now?!”

My bracket is in the toilet.  I had Vandy in the Sweet 16 and Georgetown in the FINAL FOUR.  However, in light of all of the upsets, my Wofford pick is looking pretty strong right now!

It’s easter bunny photo time again next weekend! Here is Charlie’s bunny photo from last year, to refresh your memory.  I love how he looks like he’s trying to escape from the easter bunny.

Jeff and Jordan are hilarious on the Amazing Race.  I loved them on Big Brother and still love them.

I’ve been mulling over adding some kind of recipe submissions tool to EADL – would you guys like that?

I read the most amazing book on the plane home from Las Vegas (when I went to WPPI).  It’s called Firefly Lane and it’s the story of two best friends told throughout their lives.  You should read it, I was bawling by the end.

And speaking of Las Vegas, I had a BLAST but four nights in the land of smoking and slot machines was far too long.  They need to move the conference to the beach or something.

It takes 45 minutes to walk from the far tower of the MGM Signature to the Strip exit of the MGM.

My sister is visiting India for her spring break.  I am jealous.  I want to go to India.

Does anyone who’s been to Egypt have any tips to share?

I know I still need to post my photos from the rest of the cruise.  I will try to do that soon, I promise.  Russia was phenomenal and I want to do it justice!

It’s been 60s all week and sunny, and naturally it’s supposed to rain/snow this weekend.  Lovely.

What are your weekend plans?

For the time being, I’m working out of a home office that also doubles as a guest bedroom. It makes the most sense to do so given the logistics of my current job, and to be honest… I’d rather work in sweats with NPR droning on all day long anyway. I’ll post about home office decor soon (hint: some of it might look familiar), but for now, I’d love some advice from my fellow telecommuters about time management. Particularly when our apartment is still full of unpacked boxes and a never-ending To Do list, I’m finding it really difficult to ignore the chores and focus on what I get paid to do for eight hours a day.

I have made one smart decision for my working self: driving my husband to work each day. It sounds silly, but waking up earlier than I might like to in order to get him to his office by 7:00 a.m. is the sort of routine that helps frame my work day, even if I’m the only one who knows it. By the time I get back to our apartment, I’m awake and ready for coffee – and much less likely to climb back into that cozy bed.

But oh, the distractions! Here’s what I have trouble with:

Unpacking and organizing. While our apartment is livable right now, there’s still so much that needs to be done. Working in the midst of boxes, it’s impossible to ignore them or feel like I can put them off until later. They’re right there. Just one box! And then I’ve unpacked ten of them. (And don’t even get me started on “just one quick Ikea assembly…”)

Daytime errands. It’s so much easier to run errands in the middle of the day than after normal work hours, when the rest of the world is running errands. More times than I can count, I’ve told myself how much more effective I’ll be doing that thing that needs doing in the mid-morning, and then I’ve justified it with the ease of city parking during the daytime. But as we know, one errand can so easily lead to an afternoon of them.

Service scheduling. “I work from home, so come at any time.” I’ve said it to cable guys, maintenance folks, building management, etc. And it’s true, I do work from home and I can receive them at any time… but if I’m on the clock should I really be assisting the building manager as he climbs behind our washer/dryer to fix the wiring?

Evening realities. Telling myself that I’ll make up for lost daytime hours by working at night has become a complete joke. When T gets home for the day, I want to be with him, not shut away in the home office. So if making up for lost time then isn’t a reality… when is it?

So tell me… what tips help you shut away the world while working from home (or at least quiet it a little)? Is it silly for me to expect so much of myself when our life is still in cardboard-boxed chaos? Should I get my apartment in order, then work my days away… or set my work rules now and early, when the best habits will stick?

Greetings from Washington, DC! You might remember that after a topsy-turvy fall, we landed in our first choice city. Why, then, haven’t I been blogging my heart out about all the fantastic nesting we’ve been doing in our new city? Well, there are a few explanations for why this move hasn’t exactly been routine:

1. We moved here during a blizzard. Snowpacalypse, Snowmaggedon, Snow-Over-It, take your pick… This was our view when we pulled into our new apartment, days before another storm hit. What a mess!

2. We moved here with only a carful of belongings. We thought we’d be doing a little urban camping for a few days, so we packed the car full of just what we needed: an air mattress, one pot and pan, one set of dishes for each of us, a few clothes, and some travel-sized toiletries.

{Read the rest of this entry…}

I sat at my computer for about 20 minutes this morning trying to figure out the best way to start this post and explain my (2 month!) absence from EADL.

Well, this is all I’ve got:

We’re moving to Colorado!  We are so incredibly lucky to have some wonderful parents, who are offering up one of their rental properties for us to move into.  It’s a great location in downtown Denver, and the house is just so….us.  Of course, it needs a great deal of work (it was built in 1941 and hasn’t seen much remodeling since then…it still has yellow countertops and wood paneling, kids), but we can’t wait to move in and get our hands dirty in 3 months and 3 weeks!

It’s been a crazy hectic couple months of planning, scheduling, arranging job interviews, starting up my own blog (which will hopefully debut next week), and figuring out where we’ll be living.  So, my dear EAD readers, I apologize. I promise to not be delinquent any longer.  In fact, you will likely be getting a whole truckload of posts about remodeling planning, landscaping,and eco-friendly renovations. So get excited.

In the meantime, any suggestions to boost the curb appeal on this baby? We pondered painting and a new door… possibly getting rid of shrubs…any fantastic tips?

XOXO

B

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This year my husband and I will not be exchanging Valentine’s Day gifts. The decision was mostly his. He doesn’t believe in the Hallmark holiday and would prefer to save our joint income than spend it on jewelry for me. It’s not that he doesn’t love me or that he is particularly frugal. We show our affection for one another daily, and when we go shopping together, he hardly ever denies me the things that I “need.” I think it’s the idea that a token gift on a particular day of the year is supposed to mean something more than it would on any other day.

Although I understand the reason behind his decision, I can’t help but feel disappointed. I would be happy with a simple bouquet of flowers, or even a card, but sadly I don’t I’m going to receive either. Me, the lover of paper, who already has several cards picked out for him! Yes, I do tell him everyday that I love him, but I enjoy having the opportunity to really let my thoughts loose on paper. My husband has stood by me during a number of challenges this past year, and I want to thoroughly thank him for his patience and his love. It may not be reciprocated, but I’m still going to give him a card (or three!).

I suppose I should feel a bit relieved that we aren’t exchanging gifts for Valentine’s Day because surprising your significant other with a present is difficult when you are married to somebody who checks the credit card statements nearly every day. When I know I want to buy my husband a gift, I need to be sneaky. Sometimes I’ll plan ahead and take a little bit of extra cash out of the ATM for a couple of weeks before I actually need it. If I want to buy him a gift online, I’ve been forced to ask my parents if I can use their credit card and pay them back after the gift has been given. When it comes to gift giving, having a separate credit card or separate bank accounts would be ideal.

I know I covered a bunch of topics in the post, but I’m very curious to hear from you. Will you be exchanging Valentine’s Day presents with your hubby? How do you go about buying gifts without him finding out? Do you have a separate credit card for that purpose?

Remember Next Stop Wonderland? We now have a destination! We’re circling right back to where we began, it turns out… with politics. It goes a little something like this:

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That’s right, folks! In one month’s time, we’ll be the newest citizens of our nation’s capital, and we couldn’t be more thrilled. It’s a new chapter for us both, and I’m excited and humbled and EXCITED and just plain grinning at the opportunity. (Did I mention EXCITED?) To begin an adventure side-by-side with my favorite person in a fantastic city… I’m a lucky, lucky girl.

We found an apartment over the weekend and we have ten days before the moving truck arrives. In other words, someone needs to be packing right about now…

Let the adventures begin!!

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Yesterday at the hair salon, I was talking to my stylist about the woes of being a responsible adult. She recently was invited to a friend’s 40th birthday party in Las Vegas but couldn’t attend because she’s saving her money to buy new curtains for her new house. Getting window coverings is certainly not as glamorous or fun as a romp in Sin City but she made the decision that it was more important. That’s a very adult choice, don’t you think?

Sometimes being a responsible adult is not a choice. Case in point: This morning my husband called me in a panic on his way to work. He hit a patch of black ice and slid off the road in our hand-me-down 2003 sedan that does not have anti-lock brakes or 4-wheel drive. I had to drive out to him in our SUV with a shovel to help dig him out of a snow bank. This is the second time this Winter that he’s been in an accident in the sedan. Two years ago during a snowfall I was rear-ended while driving the sedan and now refuse to drive it at all during the Winter. In fact, that’s why we bought our SUV. Now it looks like we might need to invest in another Winter-friendly car.

Unfortunately, the sedan belongs to my sister, so if we want to get something new, we’ll have to give it back to her… no trading it in. We’ll need to pony up a lot of cash if we want to upgrade. But from where will the money come? Well, it will come from being responsible and curtailing our spending on non-essentials. It won’t be fun, but we don’t really have a choice!

When did you have to make the decision to become responsible when you would have rather been carefree?

Ask me anything.  I’ll blog the good ones back here on EADL.  :)

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Well hello there!  I am Tara and I am beyond excited to be joining the amazing ladies at Elizabeth Anne Designs Living.

While some of you might know a bit about me from my blog In This Instance, where I have blogged about everything from my wedding planning journey to the pretty little everyday details that are capturing my attention, I thought it may be helpful if I start off with a little bit about me. I am a Midwest girl who is married to her college sweetheart, raising two city pups, a corporate-type project manager by day, hobbyist dreaming of an independent creative-type career by night, and is simply trying to live life to its fullest.

If I had to pick a favorite out of my hobbies it would be baking or maybe photography. I have a long time love of reading, picnics, and daydreaming. It could be said that I enjoy crafts but essentially I just like to create; at any given point I could be dreaming up a project for making cupcakes, holiday cards, or a skirt. Also, I am an excellent navigator (seriously) and I try to remember to be goofy once in a while and laugh a lot.

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We’re almost half-way into January already. Wow! How many of you are keeping up with your New Year’s resolutions? I set a couple of goals when the calendar changed, but my husband and I are continuing to brainstorm ways to better ourselves and our relationship. That’s why I’m writing this post when normally I’d be sleeping. No, it’s not the middle of the night or the wee hours of the morning. It’s 7:30 am–and that’s early for me!

Being self-employed, my schedule is flexible, and I normally don’t have anywhere to be before noon. When I do have to get out of the house, I typically roll out of bed around 9am. By that time my husband has been at work for at least an hour. Although we go to bed at the same time, my hubby has to wake up at 6:45am. It was his “great” idea that I get out of bed when he gets out of the shower so that we can enjoy a cup of coffee together and talk about what’s on our agenda for the day (Although I mostly think he wanted me up earlier because he was annoyed that I got to continue snoring as he walked out of the house!).

So here I am, drinking my coffee and being productive. I’ve already fed the dog and let him out (normally he’d still be sleeping, too) and checked my friends’ updates on Facebook and Twitter. I actually put a pen to paper and wrote a To Do list for today. Thank goodness I have a couple more hours today to tackle it–it’s a bit long.

My question for you is this: What time do you wake up? What does your morning schedule look like? As I know, it’s way too easy to be lazy when you are self-employed. I’d love to hear if you struggle with the same issues.