Conquering entryway clutter

I suppose since I’ve gotten married it’s actually occurred to me how dirty my house gets, and how quickly it does so. Not to mention that hubby has left a lot of home renovation projects unfinished due to lack of time, money or both. I find that things bother me more easily. I think this is because this is officially OUR house now.

Here’s the thing: I want a home that if, when a friend or family member calls and says “I’ll be over in 5 minutes,” I could actually straighten up in that amount of time and have the house be presentable to a guest. If you walked into my house right now, you would find that the coffee table is covered in mail, magazines, and detritus that hubby and I have taken from my purse and his pockets and left there.

I've pored over realsimple.com, marthastewart.com, unclutterer.com looking for the perfect solution for this "point of entry" clutter. But the perfect solution involves a purchase – a purchase that I can’t afford to make right now.

This is what I'm coveting now:

The Graham Smart Technology Secretary from Pottery Barn.

I really want a secretary desk like this for our living room, one in which I can store & sort the mail; have stationery on hands for thank you notes & correspondence; store & charge our iPods, digital cameras and laptops. I'll even take IKEA -- I saw a great article in Better Homes & Gardens a few months ago that detailed how to turn an IKEA Alve secretary desk into an entryway organizer, and that’s basically what I’m going for. They even suggested drilling a hook in the side to hang your purse when you come home.

We have the Clark Wall Shelf & Bench with Baskets set in red from JCPenney (which by the way is on sale and looks just like the PB version) and I think the set was a good investment, but I need storage for the things I mentioned above.

What do you do to keep things organized at your home's entry point?

My lunch out with mom

Mom's proscuttio ham & provolone panini is pictured at top. My salmon with fried green tomato, crawfish cream sauce & sweet potato "hay" is pictured at bottom. Yummo!

It was really funny directing my mom in to my workplace today. She had her Garmin but has no sense of direction and still got lost trying to get into the station.

Then after lunch she wanted to come inside to "use the restroom," but I knew that was really an excuse to talk to some on-air anchors & reporters. And she got her wish -- we ran right into one of our female reporters, then into our head evening anchor. As I'm taking her down the hall to escort her out, my mom leans over and whispers loudly, "That was totally a toup!"

Back into the groove

I'm finally starting to fall back into the groove after a crazy, crazy week. Covering Southeastern Conference football Media Days last Wednesday-Friday totally took it out of me. I ended up working the equivalent of 4 days in 3 days' time, so I'm taking a little bit of comp time this week.

Then this weekend, one of my BFFs/bridesmaids came into town with her new man on Saturday and we all went out for Thai food and martinis. They stayed at our house Saturday night.

Now I'm busy writing several sorority recommendations for ladies going through Rush (we call it Recruitment now!) at the universities of Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina. Plus I have some paperbackswap.com books to send out, and I think hubby and I are FINALLY going to see The Hangover tonight.

Also our poor Mango has been having some skin allergies, so we've got to get her to the vet this week for an allergy shot. This happened last summer too.

We're also trying to plan out a Labor Day weekend trip to Austin, so hopefully that will all fall into place this week. I have been DYING to go to Austin for a long time. Hubby's best friend is moving back into his house there, plus another groomsman lives there as well, so it will be nice to have some locals to show us around.

My next post will be part 4 of our wedding day recaps!

SEC football Media Days

I am going to be OOL (out of the loop) until the weekend while I am busy covering Southeastern Conference football Media Days for work.

It's thought of as the official kickoff of the season...and, it's about as crazy as you think it would be.

Roll Tide!

Magazine addict, reformed.

I am a magazine addict, you see. Reformed. In the near past, I subscribed to a dozen or more magazines. Sadly, some of my favorite magazines have folded -- RIP Jane, Domino and Blueprint. Others I simply did not renew, such as Lucky (nearly all items featured are out of my price range) and Vanity Fair (all ads and would just rather read the articles online). I believe I've even let my Allure subscription lapse, and that was (still is) truly one my my favorite mags.

WHY these magazines folded and why I've let other subscriptions lapse is a whole 'nother post. I studied magazine journalism in school, and I can definitely say that the rise of the blogosphere is just one reason why interest in magazines is waning. Personally, I'd much rather hear about YOUR beauty routine and must-have products, YOUR fashion finds, and YOUR latest home improvement project.

So by attrition and lack of interest, I suppose, my magazine subscriptions have dwindled and now I receive only Glamour, Shape, Marie Claire and Better Homes & Gardens. Each of these I receive because they are offered through mycokerewards.com or other rewards programs that I'm signed up with. In Glamour's case, they were offering $1 one-year subscriptions a while back.

BUT of course there are still some existing magazines that I appreciate. Real Simple has always been one of my favorites -- its layout and photography are to-die-for and I think the mag itself looks pretty on a coffee table. At the same time, it's useful & informative. Very few magazines are both beautiful and useful. My mom receives RS, but I could never pull the trigger on coughing up $20+ per year for the mag. But some of you lovely bloggie ladies alerted me to the $5 one-year subscription sale, and I received an e-mail tonight telling me that my first issue will arrive in 6 to 10 weeks. Hooray!

I think if I could subscribe to any more magazines, it would definitely be Cooking Light and Coastal Living. I could use some photo inspiration of coastal-style exposed ceiling beams for our latest project in the laundry room, and some low-cal recipes for hubby to make in the kitchen. But magazine subscriptions cost money, don't they? Sigh.

What are your favorite magazines?

Comment issue fixed

Just an FYI that there was a problem with the word verification for comments. Thanks Blogger!

It appears to have been fixed and you should be able to comment away.

Thanks Gracie Beth for alerting me to the problem!

The next stage

I suppose I'm going through a bit of a post-marriage crisis. For a year and a half, I was defined as "engaged." Now I am a newlywed and all the hoopla of putting together a wedding is over.

I am not depressed by any means; in fact, I'm very happy with my hubby and the home we have built together. But I'm ready to move on. I'm ready for us to move on, together, into the next stage of our lives.

I don't yet have the urge for a baby, and if I do, I can guarantee that it won't be until after age 30. I'm 26 and a half now... and personally, I want to enjoy my 20s with my husband. I don't know if I'll ever have the urge for children. Right now they just kind of freak me out.

So I guess what I'm saying is that I'm ready for the Big Change/Move (as Brittany Ann puts it) to happen for us in the next year or two.

Financially, we are not doing so hot, just like everyone else. My salary has been cut this year. (Um, hello, I am but a po' journalist.) And I added hubby to my health insurance at work, which has taken another bite out of my paycheck. There's a chance of more paycuts for the 4th quarter of the year. And I don't make that much in the first place. I have yet to crack $40K.

Hubby works 2 jobs-- one in a restaurant kitchen and another as a publicist/personal assistant. His two passions are poker and food. He has a culinary associate's degree and a good bit of experience writing/blogging about poker. Our desire is to get more money pumping into both of our paychecks so that we can live more comfortably, pay off our debts, and not feel as though we are living paycheck-to-paycheck.

Oh, and by the way, we own a house. Not only is there a mortgage to pay every month (which is not too bad, comparable to an apartment rent around here) but there are the costs of repairs and renovations to our home, which is a cute little cottage built in 1949. In short, we can pay the mortgage and the bills, but we don't really have the fundage to continue making improvements like we had been doing in 2007 (when we bought the house) and 2008.

So I think our plan is to put the house up for sale at some point. Right now is not the time as the housing market is so bad, plus there are a lot of homes for sale in our neighborhood, but perhaps after the first of the year. I think we would really feel more comfortable if we could sell the house, then plot our next move from there. Hopefully we could make enough from the sale to get us on our way.

Our home is definitely a starter home -- it's a 3/1 with a pretty small kitchen and a carport rather than a garage. So we could definitely let it go. Wherever we end up next, I hope to have a 3/2 with an ample kitchen and a 2-car garage. Even a townhouse would be fine.

I don't know if we'll stay in Alabama or go elsewhere. We have some ideas -- a couple cities we are interested in -- but I certainly don't want to jeopardize my job by blabbing about that sort of thing on the Internet. If we do move, it won't be for a while. We're tethered here by the house. And did I mention that I love my job and the people I work with? ☺

I can tell you our criteria for what we want in a place: no super cold winters, tourism, good restaurants & nightlife, no super high cost-of-living, opportunities for hubby with restaurants and/or poker, and opportunities for me with online media, e-commerce, PR or marketing. Oh, and there must be a Jamba Juice. haha. Any suggestions?

New layout

I am a Web editor by trade, you know. So, I am happy to report that I figured out how to make my blog into a 3-column layout all by myself. Hooray!

I also got a new background and banner from cutestblogontheblock.com. What do you think? Until I can shell out $50 or more for a blog makeover, I think this will do just fine!

My banner now reads "Southern Web Girl" instead of "Something Blue." Because this has turned into much more than just a wedding blog.

Speaking of the wedding, I plan to post more recaps and photos soon. You can see parts 1-3 of the wedding day here.

I have my sisters with me

So, I was in a sorority in college. Gamma Phi Beta at the University of Alabama, to be exact. I was Panhellenic Affairs VP as a junior and Administrative VP (or just plain VP) as a senior.

Stroll on over to my chapter's Web site if you want. As head chapter advisor in 2008, I helped them switch over to this new Web site powered by Chapter Communications (which I highly recommend, by the way). It's one of the several things I'm proud to have accomplished last year.

By the way, aren't the girls just adorable? They're doing so well. Their colors are pink and brown, their flower is the pink carnation, and their symbol is the crescent moon. I think all of those are precious. My sister was also a Gamma Phi, at UGA.

And while Gamma Phi isn't as "well-known" as other sororities in the South, it's one of the oldest nationally and a founder of the National Panhellenic Conference. Famous Gamma Phis include actresses Kristin Chenoweth & Cloris Leachman (both hilarious!), as well as host of CEOs and politicians, including one of Alabama's Supreme Court justices.

So, last year, when I was in the midst of planning a wedding, I was also traveling 90 miles roundtrip an average of twice a week to cater to my lovely girls. If you were in a sorority in college, you know what it means to be the chapter advisor: the disciplinarian, the counselor, the shoulder to lean on, the bridge between the chapter and the alumnae volunteer structure... the hero, the villian.

I oversaw the elections process, dealt with mental breakdowns and parent drama, spent long hours dealing with Recruitment, made sure paperwork was up-to-date, and accompanied the girls to International Convention last June in Cincinnati. (Gosh, was that really 13 months ago?) And that's just the beginning. And no, I wasn't paid for my work, nor did I get any special recognition. But I loved it. I loved being in the thick of it.

In December, I made the hard decision to step down as head chapter advisor and pass the baton on to one of my pledge sisters, who just happened to be moving back to Tuscaloosa and who is an expert on Recruitment. I wanted to devote what would be their spring semester to planning my wedding in April -- there were a lot of loose ends to tie up and I was afraid I wouldn't have the time for my girls. There were also some things going on professionally that I needed to tend to as well.

I'm still on the advisory board, but I'm not involved in the day-to-day business of the chapter anymore. It went from full throttle to a few bits & pieces within the span of about 2 weeks. And to be honest, sometimes I really miss it. Other times, not so much. In this digital world, members, parents and alumnae expect answers almost instantaneously. My e-mail inbox filled up very quickly.

Wherever Brian and I end up next, I hope to get involved with active collegiate members. And this year I'm serving as Public Relations VP for my local alumnae chapter. If any of you are considering volunteering with your sorority, absolutely go for it. My days with Gamma Phi are nowhere near over...like they say, it goes beyond college, but only if you make it so. I treasure my membership and my sisters dearly.

Here is what my sisters sang to me at the wedding:

All my life's a circle
Sunrise and sundown
The moon rolls through the nighttime
Till the daybreak comes around
All my life's a circle
and I can tell you why
I have my sisters with me, here in Gamma Phi

Cue the awwwws

Exhibit A. This is our dog Mango, back when she was a wee little 6-week-old 4 lb. ball of fur. This photo was taken the week after Christmas 2007.

This photo is, in fact, so cute that Mango made CuteOverload.com. Really. You can see it here.


Exhibit B. This is another one of my favorite of Mango in March 2008 at 4 months old. Around this time, her ears started getting really big. They had this tendency to flop inside out and it never seemed to bother her. She NEVER grew out of it.


Exhibit C. Finally, here she is late last year in her fully-grown 80 lb. glory. Yep, 80 lbs. She has really long leg for a Lab too.

She's the zaniest girl I know. And we love her.

Name changing checklist

Just wanted to share this great name-change checklist from The Nest. (It's a PDF.)

I totally thought I was almost done with all the name-changing business, but I still have a ways to go. Sigh.

What I will do before I turn 30

So even though my wonderful husband Brian is already 30, I still have about 3.5 years to go. Here is a list of things I want to accomplish before then:

Things to do:

• Backpack through Europe. I want to hit Great Britain, France, Italy, Germany and Spain. I want to stay in hostels, pack just 3 outfits and a little black dress, eat fabulous food at littles holes-in-the-wall, and travel by train through the countryside with my hubby.
  
• Go deep sea fishing in the Gulf. We are planning out a trip with friends for this next spring! I am really excited about this!
• Go camping for real. Like I'm talking just a tent, a couple sleeping bags, cooking over the fire, "real" primitive camping. I've never done this before.
• Visit New Orleans, Savannah, Austin, and Las Vegas! We have friends we can stay with in almost all of those cities.
• Watch Tiger Woods play golf. Not on our HDTV at home -- in person, preferably at The Masters.
  
• Renew our vows at Disney World or Las Vegas. This might end up happening after 30, perhaps at our 5-year anniversary.
• Visit local "staycation" destinations. I want to visit Desoto Caverns Park, Morgan Creek Vineyards, the Huntsville Space & Rocket Center, and several other local Alabama tourist destinations that we just haven't gotten around to seeing in the past 3 years that we have lived here!
  

Things to learn:

• Learn how to drive a stick shift. Brian and I have had a few lessons, but overall this is something I am really anxious about. Not sure why.
  
• Learn Web and graphic design -- CSS, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, etc. These are all things I've dabbled with in my work, but I want to know enough to create Web sites and graphics on my own, without going through support at corporate, lol. I want to feel equally confident in both my Web content abilities and my Web technical abilities.
• Learn how to shoot a gun. I want to take lessons and get a gun license. There's no reason for me not to know how to use a gun properly.
  
• Learn how to sew. I want a sewing machine and I want to learn how to sew. I'd love to at least know how to replace a button!
• Learn how to dive! I cannot dive head-first into a swimming pool. I don't know why. Nevertheless, this was a problem during my swim team days as you can imagine. Those swim team days didn't last long!
  

Monday morning stress plus our 3-day weekend

Last night around 9, hubby gets a call from work. He tells me he is going to go in for a couple hours to clean some kitchen equipment that apparently really needed cleaning. This is all fine with me -- more hours equals more paycheck for him.

Hubby leaves around 10. I get in the shower, pack my lunch for work today, and am all ready to tuck into bed and pick up where I left off reading HP & the Half-Blood Prince (I'm re-reading it before the movie release). Well I can't find either of my cell phones. I can't find my purse, period. And I can't try to find my phones by calling them because hubby is at work with his cell phone, and we have no landline.

So I just go to bed, thinking that I probably left my purse at my parents' house last night when we stopped by after the grocery store. When hubby comes in the bedroom, I tell him as much and he agrees that it's probably there.

So this morning I get ready for work and go to my parents' house. Mind you I have my car keys -- they weren't missing. I always hang them up my the front door. I arrive at my parents uannnounced, it's pouring down raining, and the purse is nowhere to be found. They let me use their phone to see if my purse/phones are somewhere in my car. Not there.

So I mid my parents farewell and go back home. I grab hubby's phone. Takes me about 5 minutes to figure out how to dial -- he's got one of those crazy touch-screen Verizon phones. Finally I dial and I hear my phone in the other room. I search, search, and finally find my purse UNDER THE SOFA. The culprit? Our Labrador Mango. She had been playing with her bone last night and in her excitement I'm pretty sure she pushed my purse under the sofa. It had been on the floor by the coffee table.

So finally I arrive at work today almost an hour late -- wet, stressed, and exhausted because I didn't sleep well last night not knowing where my purse was. All this running around business could have been averted if I had just been able to call my cell phone last night, or this morning before I went running to my parents' house. Blargh.

Today and tonight's stress aside, hubby and I had a great 3-day weekend. Friday we went to the local water park, hubby washed my car, and we stocked up on a few things at Sam's Club, including Rainier cherries, which are the bomb.com.

Saturday hubby had to work from 11-7, but I washed our sheets and quilt and got some other things done around the house, and when he got home we went to the Thunder on the Mountain fireworks display in Birmingham.

Sunday I gave the dog a bath and Furminated her, we did some gardening, we made a quick trip to Publix, we stopped to see my parents, watched Ocean's Thirteen, and hubby cooked steaks on the grill for dinner.

I hope your holiday weekend was fun!

Bag lust and other thoughts

I am lusting after this bag from The Sak (in teak).

Of course The Sak is not quite Kate Spade or Coach (or Marc Jacobs, swoon!) but the bag is genuine leather, in the size and color I've been looking for in a more comfortable price range for me. It's also a very soft, buttery leather; I've seen it in person. Currently this bag is selling for $104.25 with free shipping and a free gift. But I still do not have the funds for it.

You see, in February of this year, my company announced that everyone would go on a mandatory 10-day furlough. It's essentially a 3.8% pay decrease in exchange for an extra 10 days off for the year. And there is a chance that we could get another 2, 3 or even 5 days of furlough at the end of the third quarter. This almost 4% pay cut has really cut into funds I used for shopping and eating out. And I'm a web editor. I'm not a doctor, lawyer, accountant or CEO. Hubby and I have a long way to go before we hit 6 figures together.

So, I've signed up on a few Websites to provide English/language arts tutoring and pet sitting for people in my area. No babysitting. I'm sure I would get more business with that, but it's been so long since I've babysat children. Maybe I will work that into my offerings at some point, but right now it's tutoring and pets. So 2 nights ago, I got my first bite, from a young couple with 4 dogs who will be gone to the beach next weekend. And it just so turns out that the total amount of money I will make from them in 7 visits to check on their pooches is the exact same amount as the purse I'm coveting.

But, I'm trying not to covet. My mother and I are purging this summer; getting rid of "stuff." We both know that we won't be in Alabama forever and who wants to add to moving costs with endless amounts of stuff that we never use? If I were to get this bag, I think I would have to, at the very least, go through all of my current purses and bags and purge the majority.

There's one bag that stands out. I have a Dooney & Bourke barrel bag circa 2004. Remember when the logo bags were really in and Dooney had the multicolor logo design with a black or white background?


It's still selling for $155 at Zappos.com. It's waterproof bag too. I loved that bag. It was the first "expensive" bag I had ever owned and it made me feel very grown-up during my last year of college. But over time, some bubbles formed between the protective waterproof layer and the leather layer. And then, during my very last week of college, when I was out celebrating my graduation with my now-husband, a guy tried to steal it from me.

The guy didn't get it. He ran from across the street and came up behind me and tried to surprise me, but I had the bag on my shoulder the same way as the mannequin in the photo above, clutching the straps with my right hand. And ladies, you know when you are holding your bag that way, it is very secure.

The guy actually dragged me down on the ground trying to get the bag, but he still didn't get it. My now-husband ran after him through the Publix parking lot and lost a flip-flop in the progress. The guy was never arrested.

What should I do with this Dooney bag? I still have it, but I haven't been able to wear it since that incident. One of the straps was torn a bit during his attempt to yank it from my arm. I had terrible bruises all up and down my right arm for 2 weeks. I had to receive my diploma with those horrible bruises on my arm. Luckily those robes are long-sleeved.

As for my other bags, I should be able to toss most of those pretty easily. I'll hold on to my brown Fossil, to my blue Coach, to most of my Veras. But the rest can go, if I can just get this new bag. Or should I even get it? I, like everyone else, question every purchase so much more than I used to, and regret some of my past purchases. I'm working on paying off credit card debt, but it's a tough road. I have the right outlook, but not the right income to match.