Hiatus

Hi my friends,

I know my blog entries have been kind of scarce lately, and the ones I've written haven't been that great. Well, y'all know I'm planning a wedding, which takes a lot of time, but things have snowballed from there.

A couple weeks ago (on my birthday, actually), after being sick since March, my dad was diagnosed with a rare form of Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. He began chemotherapy a few days after that, and since then, it's been a roller coaster. We're hoping and praying that this chemo will work so that he can have a stem cell transplant and can fully recover. I'm glad I'm living in Auburn now so I can help take care of him - it's funny how things like that work out. If you could, I'd appreciate any prayers you could send his way. And you can keep up with his progress through his Caring Bridge site.

Naturally, I'm worried about him, so we decided to move the wedding from April to December - we scrapped all the plans that had been made and have redone everything to get ready for a much smaller family wedding (and a wedding when the church will be decked out for Christmas).

Moving the wedding up also means we have less time to sell Trusty Fiance's house and find him a job in Auburn, so as you can imagine, the pressure is really on. We've got some other pretty major things going on, so, long story short, I'm going to have to take a blogging hiatus. I'm sad about it, because I truly love writing this blog - it's made me get out there and try things I'd never tried, turn off the TV and be more productive and write every day. But I need to see about my dad and Trusty Fiance, I'm away from all my DIY tools, I'm not cooking much (I do more of the cleaning) and my days are spent looking at bridesmaids dresses online and trying not to screw up too much in the still-new-to-me job.

I have a lot of balls in the air, and a few of them need to be dropped, at least temporarily. And I'm afraid this blog is one of them. But please - I beg you - don't delete me off your reader and feeds. I'll be back and better than ever! I just need some time to get things clear with my family, the wedding, and everything else I'm dealing with. I promise to come back with fantastic DIYs, delicious low-cal recipes, affordable fashion and hilarious videos every Friday.

So I'll see you soon friends. Don't have too much fun without me. Hopefully life will get back to normal and we can hang out then!

Chuck Isn't Dead!!!!!!

God Bless my friend Brittany for alerting me to the Gossip Girl Season 4 Promo that's out now. Watch, then let's discuss (and if you haven't seen the finale of Season 3, well, shame on you and stop reading now).



CHUCK ISN'T DEAD!!!! Those Prague bullies can shoot him and steal his engagement ring, but Chuck Bass will never die. Thank God. I just don't think I want to go on living in a world without Chuck Bass. AND he has a cane, which is pretty hot, and not at all in the ironic "I have a cane" kind of way. I know Season 4 is going to bring lots of Chuck/Blair ("Chair"? "Bluck"?) drama - bring it on, writers.

I loathe Georgina. Truly. She is the epitome of all that is evil in this world, and I swear if she is having Dan's baby, I may quit watching. But knowing Georgina, it's some twisted plot to manipulate the entire cast to get drug money. Ugh - go back to NBC and Mercy, please.

Since when is Nate such a man whore? Oh wait - since he was ACTUALLY A MANWHORE at the beginning of Season 3. Forgive me - lost my head.

I can't wait to see Blair in Paris. I bet she can give all those bitchy Frenchwomen a real run for their money. However, does anyone find it hard to believe that Blair and Serena would check Gossip Girl while sitting in a Brasserie in Paris? Doubtful.

So, September 13 can't get here fast enough. And incidentally, of all the Gossip Girl recap sites, hands down the best one is from New York Magazine, where they recap "The Greatest Show of Our Time." The reality index is pure genius. OMGG.

Quick Tip: Clean your Pan

I cooked some scrambled eggs Saturday morning, which is one of my favorite things to make and eat, but my least favorite to clean up. Even with a non-stick pan, the eggs stick. And if you have a regular ol' pan? Forget about it.

But right before I started searching for the steel wool and a little elbow grease, my stepmom told me the easiest pan cleaning tip I've ever heard. Just fill the pan with water and stick it back on a hot eye. Let it sit for a couple of minutes, and voila! Everything just slides right off with no effort.

Isn't that easy? So now when you've made something extra cheesy, extra eggy or extra floury, you don't have to worry about spending precious TV time scraping your pan.

Video Friday: Dumb and Dumber Recut

Dumb and Dumber was one of my favorite movies of the '90s. I mean, what's better than sheer stupidity? Riding around in a furry dog car? Bathroom humor to make you cringe? A chipped front tooth and orange/light blue tuxes? Comedy. Gold. It was the first movie that really made me appreciate Jim Carrey (did I just say that?).

Well, apparently the good people at NURV decided to turn my world upside down and make this Dumb and Dumber trailer. You think Dumb and Dumber was a comedy? Think again, my friend:



hahahahahah so random. Happy Weekend everyone!

Dream House

I might MIGHT have gotten an offer on my house, so naturally I'm having visions of something new and fabulous (even if it might be WAY out of the question). I've pulled some ideal rooms from Houzz to show you a few I'd love to mimick.

Love this serene bedroom.

If you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you know I love a good white kitchen. Especially with those industrial lights.

What do you think of this bathroom? The vanity is a little over the top for me, but the silver wallpaper and tub would make me all fancy in the morning.

Classic red door and topiaries - you can't go wrong.

Would you like to come swim in my pool?

HAHAH - you can't tell me this isn't fabulous, even if it's a little over the top.

This living room is a little more down to earth and doable.

What about you? Any fabulousness you dream about for your home?

Not Dead, but Almost

Where have I been the past couple of days? Funny you should ask. Here's where we are...

I've been having some inner ear issues lately, and decided to take a Mucinex DM to try to dry everything out in there in case we just had some extra fluid. So I take the pill, which was about the size of my thumb, at 11 a.m. on Sunday right before I drove to the lake for a family lunch. Fast forward to 2 p.m. that day and I'm throwing up. When I woke up from a nap an hour later, I'm convulsing, unable to stand up, and quite literally convinced I'm dying. I had to call my dad from my cell phone (I'm IN his house, downstairs) to come see about me while my stepmom Googled "Mucinex DM Side Effects" to find that tons of people had experienced these same intense side effects. Luckily my face hadn't swollen, so we didn't have to rush to the emergency room. But seriously, if I had been home alone I would have called 911. I was that scared.

Mucinex DM: The Devil

I spent the next TWENTY-FOUR HOURS shaking pretty severly, which made me look drunk at my new job. And as I write this, it's 10:00 Tuesday night and I'm just now feeling back to normal.

Moral of the story: Mucinex DM has some crazy scary side effects that aren't even mentioned as possibilities anywhere on the box. Listen to your friend Katy and run far, far away from this stuff.

Video Friday: Shaq vs. Justin Bieber

I should preface this post by saying that in all honesty, I have no idea who Justin Bieber is. But I DO know who Shaq is, and I know he's huge. I don't want to ruin the surprise here - please just watch this and then read below.

I mean, WTF is Shaq doing at a Justin Bieber dance rehearsal? Why does he magically just show up in the frame? And who IS Justin Bieber? Is that his song? Does it just say "baby" over and over? Where does Shaq buy his huge Jamz? So. Many. Questions.

I know I might be reaching on this Video Friday submission, but my measure of whether or not a video should go on this blog is if I actually laugh out loud. And Shaq just standing in the back of a Justin Bieber rehearsal most certainly made me laugh out loud.

Happy weekend everyone!

Book Review: Certain Girls

I read my first Jennifer Weiner book, Certain Girls, several weeks ago on a lake trip. What did I think?


From Publisher's Weekly:
Following the story collection The Guy Not Taken, Weiner turns in a hilarious sequel to her 2001 bestselling first novel, Good in Bed, revisiting the memorable and feisty Candace Cannie Shapiro. Flashing forward 13 years, the novel follows Cannie as she navigates the adolescent rebellion of her about-to-be bat mitzvahed daughter, Joy, and juggles her writing career; her relationship with her physician husband, Peter Krushelevansky; her ongoing weight struggles; and the occasional impasse with Joy's biological father, Bruce Guberman. Joy, whose premature birth resulted in her wearing hearing aids, has her own amusing take on her mother's overinvolvement in her life as the novel, with some contrivance, alternates perspectives. As her bat mitzvah approaches, Joy tries to make contact with her long absent maternal grandfather and seeks more time with Bruce. In addition, unbeknownst to Joy, Peter has expressed a desire to have a baby with Cannie, which means looking for a surrogate mother. Throughout, Weiner offers her signature snappy observations: (good looks function as a get-out-of-everything-free card) and spot-on insights into human nature, with a few twists thrown in for good measure. She expends some energy getting readers up to speed on Good, but readers already involved with Cannie will enjoy this, despite Joy's equally strong voice.

When I bought this book, I didn't realize it was a sequel, but that didn't matter. I really enjoyed every page and thought the characters Cannie and Joy were real and complex. It was one of those books that you read for an hour and look up and forget that you've been reading because you've been so enthralled in the story. Perhaps this is why Jennifer Weiner is so darn popular.

Bottom line: Read it. I wish I'd read Good in Bed first, because it bugs me when I read things out of order, but Certain Girls was a great read that I really enjoyed.

They Say It's My Birthday...

Today's my birthday. I've got a lot going on in life right now, so it's kind of a non-event for the most part. But you know, if you can't wish yourself a happy birthday on your own blog, where can you? :)

Happy Last Birthday of your 20's, Katy.

3 Outfits to Steal

Do you ever get bored with everything in your closet? It happens to me all the time. But sometimes instead of high-tailing it to the mall, it's best to work with what you've already got.

Here are three outfits that look really put together, and they're all made of pieces that you may already have in your closet. And even though it's 100 degrees outside, they have me longing for cooler weather.OK, you might think I'm crazy, but this outfit from Marie Claire does something that I always seem to try (and fail) to do: mixing pieces that seemingly would never go together. I would never think to put that yellow, black, white and grey cardigan with the full blue skirt and a t-shirt, but here, it looks really great.

Is it just me, or does this picture from Lucky make you want to add some pink pom-pom trim to your favorite standard grey cardigan? Hmm... I feel a DIY coming on.

I love this look from Lucky with a white ruffled shirt, leather jacket and bright pants. I probably wouldn't think of putting the ruffled shirt under the leather jacket, but I think it's a great look.

Happy Feet

Remember ShoeDazzle from this post? The "Jelly of the Month Club for shoes"? I had gotten a little frustrated, because the shoes they had been sending to my email inbox over the past few months were, shall we say, less than desirable, as I am neither a porn star nor Laura Ingles Wilder.

But they must have known August is my birthday month (we celebrate all month long, for those of you who don't know), because I saw these in my inbox and knew they had to be mine.

What do you think? They seem to be moderately comfortable, meaning they will probably allow me a couple hours of blister-free walking time, but they're pretty cute. They're a very pale pink, so that combined with the platform make my legs look longer (always a plus).

Have any of you out there tried ShoeDazzle? Even when I don't order shoes, it's always fun to see some shoes selected for me in my inbox each month.

Video Friday: Total Eclipse of the Heart (Literal Video Version)

Hahahah! I love the song "Total Eclipse of the Heart," but I think I love this video more. Music videos, especially the ones in the '80s, were totally ridiculous, and this literal translation is proof. Thanks to my BFF Sarah for bringing this into my life.



Happy weekend everyone!

Going with Orange

It's fun to make decisions. That's why I'm pretty excited to tell you that ORANGE is going to play an important supporting role in the wedding. TAN will be its counterpart.

I know - it sounds kind of ick at first. But I think it's going to be really pretty. Check out the non-wedding orange inspiration board I put together!

What's in my Purse

Do you ever wonder how guys manage to get through their days with nothing but a wallet and a pocket full of change? Me too. I mean, I'm not condoning the use of a Man Bag or anything, but come on guys - don't you need something for all your goods? Anyway, here's what I consistently carry with me in my oversized, back-breaking purse:

A book. You never know when you're going to be stuck in a waiting room for an hour or so. I've got Charlain Harris' third True Blood book, Club Dead.

Makeup bag, with the standard lip gloss, mini brush, dental floss, etc, etc, etc.

Striped notebook, because I'm a manic list-maker. This little characteristic has grown exponentially since beginning to plan a wedding.

Ray-Ban Aviators - y'all know my affinity for the classics.

Orange wallet that can double as a clutch when needed.

Video iPod, complete with 3,997 of my favorite songs.

Digital camera - you never know when you'll need it!

Huge janitor-style keys.

Medicated Blistex and mini deodorant, because, you know - sometimes you get chapped and sweaty.

A koozie from my friends' Leslie and Casey's wedding, so that my beverages never get warm.

What about y'all? What goes with you everywhere?

Food for the Pups

Like most dogs, Molly is a pretty good begger. Whatever I'm eating, she wants. We all know not to give dogs chocolate or onions or grapes, but I always wonder what people food I can safely give her and what foods should stay on my plate.

from Flickr

But Trusty Fiance send me this article from PawNation recently that lists 10 foods that both humans and our furry best friends can enjoy. Among them are:

Melons
Sunflower Seeds
Berries
Cheese
Bananas
Baby Carrots
Green Beans

It's an interesting article that explains why some foods are just as healthy for dogs as they are for us, so if you have dogs in your life, check it out.