Hey Peeps

I'm leaving blogger...
It's a little sad - I love my random blog full of MS Paint art, random photos, rants, etc
BUT
I feel like I need a fresh start...

SO.

I'll just be over at wordpress.
I'm finishing out some overdue wedding bloggery, then I'll be cleaning up the blog to take out the boring bits of wedding ranting....then....we're starting over in 2012 at jamaallison.wordpress.com

I'm excited! I'm hoping that the new space will be more interesting. A little less dull. SOMETHING BETTER!

Thank you for being a follower/reader/lurker
<3ALLISON

Steve Jobs

My life doesn't revolve around my iPhone (this proven by the fact that I left it on the seat of my car in a MBTA parking lot one day this week). I don't own a Mac or an iPad. I never really thought about my iPhone or iPod on any emotional level.

But..Steve Jobs died yesterday..and the emotional tributes to him on everything from Design*Sponge to Nightline to I Love Charts got me thinking: how do I *feel* about my iPhone? Do I even have feelings about it?

Truth is I do. When it comes down to it, I love the thing. I will never.ever.ever go back to anything else. I rock an iPhone 3GS that I bought for $49 when the iPhone 4 came out. Did I think it would be a life-changing purchase. Not particularly. But has this piece of technology revolutionized the way I do things? Actually, yes. How?
Where do I even start?

My iPhone is my alarm clock, my meteorologist. When I'm away from home, I can get the score of the Patriots/Bruins/Celtic/Sox in the snap. My iPhone is my bird book, my GPS. It has my to do list, grocery list, countless photos. I have apps that tell me how far away my bus or train is, apps that count knitting rows for me, a kindle app that lets me read a book on the train when I've finished my library book and have nothing else to read (yes, library book, I am old-fashioned that way). I can play scrabble with friends, I can chuck angry birds at brick walls, I can take hipster picture, I have all of Shakespeare and the Louvre at the tips of my fingers. I have coupons, TV Guide, my library network, all on my phone. I could seriously go on and on and on.

Yeah, I know Steve Jobs didn't create any of these apps himself. But he envisioned and created the mechanism that delivered these things to our fingertips, and for that, I am so grateful. Sure, life was "simpler" before the iPhone, but for me, even though having that kind of accessibility makes things complicated sometimes, life is definitely better with it. Thank you.

Still Here!

I am still here!

Work is crazy!
Life is crazy!

There is noooo timmmmme!

Well there is time. Just not blogging time.

In a couple weeks we are celebrating our anniversary by heading out to Seattle:

Seattle!!

When I told my boss she said "You'll love Seattle. Oh, but don't look for Seattle Grace. It's not real."

Me: -_-

       -_-

       -_-

Her: What?!

Me: I KNOW IT'S NOT REAL!!!!!!!!

Seattle Grace: Sexy, but not real. 

So yes, we are just a few weeks away from our Seattle sojourn (oooh alliteration) - why'd we choose Seattle? Well we're visiting a Smith friend, Jam has always wanted to go to Seattle, and we want to have an anniversary dinner at the top of the Space Needle. It's not the fanciest anniversary trip, but we CAN'T WAIT to get away and are grateful to be going on a vacation at all :) yay!

Besides, we're saving up for next year. For our second anniversary and 30 and 35th birthdays and our big "pre-kids" trip we're really trying to plan a trip to:

link

Photo Dump

Anyone read Kelle Hampton's blog "Enjoying the Small Things"? It's lovely, it really is. Check it out.

Anyways, Kelle does this "Friday Phone Dump" thing - I'm assuming it's when she downloads all the photos off her phone camera. I saw her's today and thought "wow, that's a great idea! I'm gonna try that too!" Hmm. 349 photos/videos on my phone. WOW, how did that happen? I haven't even had my iphone for 6 months and I've managed to fill it with that much *stuff*?!

Most of it is random junk that I'll hide away on my external hard drive for posterity, but there were a few interesting bits and pieces:

Colonial Sampler from the MFA's Needlework exhibit

 The new Art of the America's wing

Parrot Cake Pops 

Lily needs MamaBird love

Hipstamatic print of a winter sunset

Nobska Light, Falmouth

Ridiculously good sushi special at Asian C

Crossing some bridge in NY

Apple Tree in front of the John Adams birthplace

Jam in Newport

Cloudpocalypse in Quincy

Me, my cousin and my sis finish a 5K

My Church Fair Clivia blooms!

Berry Trifle for 4th of July

I Tiny Planet-ed Fenway

Me and Jam kayak Hingham Harbor

The first morning glories!

Chihuly at the MFA

Boston from Granite Links Golf Course

The awesome epic craft box I made my MIL

Slightly creepy pic of me on Jam's bday

Flyyy-yyy-yyy-yyy-yy-yy pic of the Jamonster, while boating on Lake Winnipesaukee (and trying desperately to beat the weather home, which we did!)

OK so Operation Photo Dump was pretty fun - lots of good memories were stuck in that iPhone and I'm glad they're free. Thinks it's definitely time to delete and make room for more.

Some Pretty

Some day I'll post about the 'Great Balcony Redo.'

For now, here's a shot I took this morning with my phone. My morning glories aren't as big as they should be - this might be for many reasons - but what they lack in diameter they make up for in color - it's saturated and bright and cheerful. I love it!

New Job

So I'm seriously considering looking for a new job. That's not really a secret.

HERRRRE's the secret:

Sometimes I say things to my boss that I know will horrify her, just because I like the reaction.

Isn't that terrible?

Today I told her I was turning my wedding dress into a cocktail dress (which is probably going to happen) but I brought it up because every time I say it, she gasps and puts her hand over her heart.

*evil grin*

She recently told me that when I had kids, I would never go on vacation again because I wouldn't be able to tear myself away from them. I told her that I wasn't sure that was true. She said "It is, just wait, you won't be able to leave your child. Plus you're so type A, you'll need everything in your control." I told her that people who can't leave their kids to have a healthy "adult" vacation with their girlfriends/spouse/partner/alone have "something wrong with them." Which I think is semi-true (but that's not the point). Again, GASP! Hand on heart! Horror, oh the horror!!

It's moments like this that I almost want to stay so I can run circles around this woman....but then again, when she does things like breeze into my office only to sit down and whip out a nail file to file her creepy long nails, I have second thoughts....

The Great Pantry Re-Do

When it came time to find an apartment, Jam and I set out together one July weekend determined to make a decision as soon as possible. We were shown three of the most god-awful places I've ever seen...EVER. I returned home somewhat discouraged that a place I had seen on Craigslist that was almost perfect, had disappeared. Three days later, the "realtor" (I say that in quotes because the whole deal was SHADY!) we were working with called and asked me to look at a place. Jam was in NYC, so I brought my sister along. It was THE apartment from Craigslist! I only had to walk a few steps into the apartment to know it was indeed perfect. Spacious, filled with light, with a built-in china cabinet AND a pantry. Bliss. I put a deposit down, my sister loaded a video she recorded on YouTube for Jam's review, and a few days after that, I signed the lease.

The pantry is one of the best things about the apartment, and I claimed half of it as my craft space. I know, I know, that was pushy. Luckily Jam was cool with it. My crafty things were the first things moved and unpacked, partially because I needed so many of my craft supplies for my DIY wedding project, and partly because I have so much crap stuff. 

this was just the beginning....

Once Jam had made the move north, we devoted the second half of the pantry to food and food-related things like a panini press, Foreman grill and my beloved red mixer. Fast forward about six months. In that space of time we had a wedding, a honeymoon, continued to open boxes of wedding gifts, ordered furniture, got trapped coming home from San Diego, got snowed in more than once, had a Christmas party, had friends over...needless to say, pantry organization wasn't exactly at the top of my priority list. One day in March I realized that our pantry had fallen into disarray and disgrace. Tragic:

Cords dangled from appliances, pans were stacked haphazardly. Baking supplies and boxes of rice intermingled, vinegar and ziploc bags shared the same shelf. An old bottle of wine hid, spoiling, behind my mixer. Open bags of m and m's and pretzels lingered for months on the bottom shelf. Recipes we printed off the computer lay in an ignored pile. My Christmas amaryllis sagged in front of the window. The longer I looked, the closer I came to point break, point meltdown. I decided that the pantry needed an overhaul. 

I turned to the Container Store. I set a budget. I went to work. I sketched and resketched the pantry, I heavily stalked home improvement and decor blogs (Apartment Therapy, Design*Sponge in particular), and I made a wish list on the Container Store's website - this way I could ensure that I'd stay within my budget when I went to the store (unless I got excited and bought random things I didn't need, but I was VERY focused!) I actually took a vacation day from work to tackle this project - I dropped Jam at the airport for one of his business trips, hopped on the Mass Pike westbound and sped out to the Container Store in Natick, where I had made sure all my wish list products were in stock (gotta love the Container Store's website).

It took an entire day to organize the pantry. And while the improvements were vast, I don't think I'm quite done (having sat with the new and improved pantry for 3 months, I now know it's weakest points and know it's almost time for an update), but oh, it is SO MUCH easier to find things, use things, and I can look at my pantry without having a mental breakdown. Remember the before? The horrible, horrible before:

Get ready....

Because....

OK you really ready?

Here's the after:

Better, right??!!! 

Because this took me a whole day, I finished waaay after sunset, so sadly, the lighting in these photos isn't exactly the greatest, but here are some more shots.

I finally put to use the mason jars left over from the wedding. They've since been labeled (my dumb p-touch had dead batteries the night of the pantry re-do!)

An additional 2-tier rack and two single spinning racks wrangled my spices, baking supplies (food coloring, sprinkles) as well as things like vinegar and soy sauce.

On the top shelf, a pot lid rack wrangled our interchangeable Foreman grill racks. On the third shelf a "kitchen wrap" organizer put our ziploc bags, saran, wax paper, parcment, etc in order. The second shelf features some amazing pop-top oxo storage bins a friend gave us (oh to replace all my bins with these amazing oxo ones!), and a drop-down can rack does double duty not only organizing our canned goods, but also storing boxes of rice. Finally, I bought a small wine rack for the bottom shelf, and a mesh shelf for trashbags and boxes of sandwich bags - things we were always reaching for but could never quickly or easily find!

Also on the bottom shelf - I moved my mixer and bulk dry goods (which were heavy) down so I wouldn't have to pull them off the shelf. The basket is holding cookie cutters and other baking tools.

Even the craft side of things got a redo and tidy - not too shabby!

Though I was psyched at the outcome, there are still some things that need to be done. I still need to organize the cabinets below the shelves, purge some of my craft supplies, and tackle some of the things I didn't mention here (cough cough very top shelf of pantry cough), and I do need to help husbando finish the floor. I think this was an excellent start to my organizing endeavors though! Eek, I'm actually inspired to re-tackle the pantry and a couple other organization projects (husband's office). Stay tuned - more DIY projects might be on their way :)