texas

I'm going to try to show you some of the things we did in Texas in pictures...

IKEA! It needs another post of its own :)

Lilly at the German Fest in her lederhosen and braids :)

Also at the German Fest...

We drove to Kemah...it was so pretty.

On the tram at NASA.

Moon rocks...It was pretty cool.

On the way back yesterday, we stopped at Dealey Plaza. 

I could have written a lot more and posted tons of pictures, but I didn't want to go overboard! :)

Posts will be back to normal now...

-carlotta

happiness is...

I apologize this is a little late...It's been a crazy day! 

Happiness is...

...going to Texas. It was amazing...and I needed that break! It was a nice change.

...blossoms. Oh man. They're beautiful. I'm beginning to wonder if we almost skipped spring, though...it was 90 degrees today. NINETY. 9-0! Wow.

What are two things that made you happy this week?

-carlotta

PS My Project 365 blog is updated! I'm rather proud of myself that I didn't miss a day :)

Stay tuned for a post about our trip to Texas...it'll be ready either later today or tomorrow...

home

We're home! Man, we were only gone 6 days...but it feels like we were gone forever (in a good way).

Looong posts should be coming soon! :)

-carlotta

from the archives

Note: This is a scheduled repost - I am still away. I didn't want ya'll to get bored. :) The original post can be found here. 


I can't believe I'm blogging about this, but hopefully you will get a laugh over my story! :) Yesterday I went to do some Christmas shopping. My mom dropped me off after we went to Whole Foods, and I planned to walk back. Feeling very sure of myself, I went to Starbucks and got some hot chocolate. I waltzed right up, ordered, and gave my name so they could right it down on my cup. I made small talk with the barista, who said that she'd never met a Carlotta before, and that she loved my name. So far so good, right?
I got my order, and walked over to Pier 1. I walked around and sipped my drink. At one point, I set my cup down and opened the lid because I wanted to see if the people at Starbucks had put whipped cream in. I put the lid back on - or at least I thought I did - and continued shopping. When I lifted the cup to take another sip, I didn't get any hot chocolate. Instead, I felt a warm trickle down my shirt all the way until just below my knee. I looked down, and I was practically covered in hot chocolate. It was one of those omigosh-I-can't-believe-this-is-happening-maybe-I'm-imagining-it-and-I-can-just-somehow-"rewind"-this. But no, it was for real. There was a puddle of my drink around me, too. It was so so so embarrassing!!!!
I am such a klutz.
I thought I might be able to just cover it up with my jacket, but realized quickly that it was out of the question. Timidly I approached a sales associate and asked where the bathroom was. She gave kind of an odd look when she saw my apperance, but told me where it was. I went to the bathroom and washed out my (formerly white) scarf, and cleaned my shirt and pants the best I could. My shirt I could cover up with a jacket but my pants where another story. It looked like I had had an "accident".
I am such a klutz.


I felt so bad that the sales people had to clean up my mess! I wanted to clean it up when I got out of the bathroom, but they had already done it. I saw them giggling, glancing in my direction...but I probably would have done the same thing if I was in their position! I quickly made my purchases and walked home.

Next time I go to Pier 1, I'm going to have sunglasses, a hat, wig, and fully buttoned up peacoat so no one can recognize me. Just kidding...sort of. :)

Oh, and did I mention yet? I am such a klutz!

-carlotta

checking in!

I thought I'd check in...we found internet access here...yay! There would've been pictures with this post, but I left my camera connector at home as I thought I wouldn't be able to blog...ah well.

We arrived safely yesterday after a 8 1/2 hour drive...Sarge came with us. I thought it would be the longest car ride of my life, but he was really, really good. I was very (pleasantly) surprised...

Today we went to IKEA! It was amazing, even though part of it was under construction. I probably would've gotten more, but there is only so much room in our car... Pictures of the things I got coming soon!

-carlotta

think color

Note: This is a scheduled post; comment moderation is disabled, as I am here to moderate comments. I have turned it off you so don't have to wait and wait for your comment to appear.

I think I've found my new favorite design book (aside from Apartment Therapy...that's going to stay as one of my favorites for a long time!) - Think Color by Tricia Guild.

The most I've been able to do is look at some of the pictures, but from what I've seen...wow. The rooms! Oh, the rooms. 

I can see a lot of Indian (India) influeneces in it...the rooms have very clean and simple lines, but they don't look minimalistic, as there are lots of colorful accents.

Have you ever seen a cooler couch?! I think I'm going to faint.

Hold on a second. White, pink, and orange? *thunk* (that was my head hitting the floor. I fainted.)

Okay, seriously. That plant in the green vase? It's a flower. Oh my. I love it.

Have a wonderful day! I will be back Tuesday afternoon/evening.

-carlotta

happiness is...

It's Happiness Is time again...I'm one happy girl this Wednesday...we're leaving on our trip tomorrow morning! Woohoo! Just so you know, though, my grandma doesn't have internet access, so I won't be blogging. Yes, you would think I've already been away enough...sorry! I may schedule a post or two, but I have sooo much still to do before we leave, so don't count on it...

Also, I will turn comment moderation OFF for any scheduled posts so you don't have to wait and wait and wait for your comment to show up :)
I will be back Tuesday afternoon/evening.

Alright, after all that boring stuff, let's get started.

Happiness is...

...going to the ballet with my friend. It was soooo good (you can read my post on it here).

...that that bathroom is almost done!! I know, I know, I've already posted about this a ridiculous amount of times, but you don't know how much easier this make life!

What are two things that made you happy this week?

-carlotta 

raw(e)

This week's Raw(e) theme is beautiful. 

I had to think a for a few minutes on what I considered beautiful, and then it dawned on me. 

God's creation is beautiful.

These seeds sprouting are beautiful.

People are beautiful.

Everything God has made is beautiful.

What does the word "beautiful" mean to you?

To learn how Raw(e) works, go here.

If you'd like to enter a photo of your own, go here and link up!

Have a great day!

-carlotta

the ballet

Yesterday I went to The Contemporaries ballet with my friend.

It required us to go downtown to the Preforming Arts Center...

While getting out of the car, I stepped onto the sidewalk and almost got a huge chunk of ice on my head. It had fallen from the top of an at least 100 foot building, probably more. I'm glad I didn't get knocked out! :) 

I digress.

I passed the time waiting for it to start taking pictures of the amazing walls. 

Unfortunately, no photography was allowed during the ballet...so a picture of the curtain will have to do.

The ballet was amazing. It was in three acts - Maninyas, Por Vos Muero, and This is Your Life. This is Your Life was by far my favorite...

After the first act - Maninyas - there were many empty seats farther up and we were able to sit in the middle of the fourth row from the stage! It was amazing to see something so beautiful up close.

So, what was your Sunday like?

-carlotta

dreaming of ikea

As you may or may not know, we're heading to where we used to live, near Houston, Texas, on Thursday for a few days. There is a German festival and they ask my dad to come down every year to hold a German church service (he usually says one sentence in German, then translates it into English) I'm always happy for the excuse for us to head down there! :)

I digress.

The Houston IKEA not too far away from where we are going. Oklahoma doesn't have any IKEA stores (Boo! And we can't really have anything shipped as their shipping charges are ridiculous)...the nearest store is in Dallas, Texas. But as long as we're near Houston, my mom and I will probably head to the Houston store. I am so excited! (Um, yes. I think someone needs a little help getting over obsessing about decorating)

Last night my mom and I were looking at their website - big mistake. I'm going crazy over all their wonderful things...and their cheap prices. I love that all their pieces are so versatile...they fit with pretty much every style.

Here are some of my favorites...

FILLSTA table lamp

*Drool* Have you ever seen anything cuter?! This would go perfectly on my nightstand.

FARM vase

How amazing would a couple of these on a tray look? The price is even better - $1.99. Hold on a second while I buy a few hundred a couple.

DEKAD alarm clock

The nightstand essential. Everyone needs one of these!

FIGGJO mirror

I'm falling more in love with this mirror every second. This would look amazing in our soon-to-be-finished bathroom...

So, who's with me? Anyone else who is head over heels in love with IKEA?

-carlotta

upstairs bathroom update

 I can't believe it's almost done. After weeks of thinking we would never have two full bathrooms again, we are thisclose to being done.

The wainscoting is in place, waiting to be painted.

The toilet is in!

Except there's no bathroom door, so I have yet to use it [the toilet]. 

All the grouting is done (Hallelujah! Even though I only grouted about half a wall - hehe - I don't like that stuff. At all).

And the shower is all hooked up - all that's missing is the shower curtain.

I can't wait to take a long shower with this lovely shower head providing the water:)

(I was supposed to take a picture of "the beautiful plumbing job". I'm not sure what and "ugly plumbing job" looks like, but I obliged and took a picture. It's kind of growing on me.)

I came home yesterday from my mini 'trip' and found ALL the plumbing material and tools gone from my room (the plumbing for the shower is in my room, behind a little door). My room looked 20 times cleaner!
The landing looks almost empty without all the equipment filling it too. I had grown so used to it all I didn't realize it could actually be clean! :)

The only things that are left are painting/whitewashing (we haven't quite made up our minds) the wainscoting and putting in the sink. Our handyman friend that is helping us had surgery on his knee yesterday, so he obviously couldn't do anything, but as soon as he's recovered he'll put in the sink.

It's come a long way from this!

I am one happy girl (it's kind of sad that I'm so excited about a bathroom of all things, but I'm beyond excited that no one has to fight over the shower anymore! :)).

-carlotta

this is not cool

Update: Now, approximately three hours after the below photo was taken, the snow is almost burying the flowers. And it's still. coming. down.

Original post: 

Do you see this?

SNOW. 

This is not cool. At all. And on the first day of spring. 

Snow on the first day of spring does not make me happy. I thought we were over winter...yesterday it got up to 78. It is now 30. And they're predicting up to 10 inches.

Thankfully, it'll be back up to 62 on Tuesday...

Grrrr.

-carlotta

mia...

I apologize for being MIA this week...I was at a three-night sleepover. Hehe.
My friend Reagan and I feel even more like sisters now.

A quick story before I sign off tonight.

Reagan and I were walking to go shopping, and we heard someone playing the bongos (bongo?). As we got closer, we saw that there were two guys (and by guys I mean mid twenties to early 30s) on the front porch - one was playing the bongos and the other was sitting next to him. As Reagan and I passed by the house, both guys just started chanting (presumably at us) - Native American style. When they saw that we weren't looking at them (we were too busy trying to hold in our laughter) they stopped. Talk about weird. :)

-carlotta

collage

Until I have more time to post, here is a collage of some of my favorite pictures...

(Click on it to see it bigger)

-carlotta

happiness is...

It's Wednesday already? Wow. Time goes by too fast...

Happiness is...

...the adorable ducklings I saw. Man, where they cute!

Visiting our friends the Hintzes for the first time in five months! Even though they live about 30 minutes away, we were both busy and didn't get the chance to meet up...glad we finally did!

What are two things that happened this week that made you happy?

-carlotta

raw(e)

It's Raw(e) time again...This week's theme is distraction.

I'll admit, I did have a rather hard time figuring out what to photograph. I mean, how does one photograph a distraction?

Here's what I came up with:

My distraction is procrastination. I know that's probably no surprise, but it's true.

I chose to photograph my bookcase as I procrastinate because I'm reading a book. Or on the computer (but I've gotten better about that...).

What's your distraction? 

-carlotta

spring is addicting

1. I think I'm addicted to taking pictures of flowers (I don't even know the names of the flowers I take pictures of (except daffodils). Is that bad?). No, wait. Scratch that. I'm addicted to spring.

2. I like lists. They're organized and neat (most of the time, anyway). I like lists in the form of blog posts, too.

3. I noticed today how extremely white I am. I'll spare you pictures, but it ain't pretty. Why can't we be back in the 1800s? White skin was all the rage...and yep, I'd probably have some of the whitest skin. But, I suppose being white is better than being sunburned. Sometimes my blonde hair and green eyes are a curse. 

4. I have to send my laptop in. Boo. I've been having trouble with my display...there are horizontal and vertical lines all over the screen and the colors are messed up (when you have it a certain way). I don't really want to send it in - it's going to be a major pain - but at least it's happening now while I'm still under warranty.

5. It bugs me when apostrophes are misused. Just FYI.

6. I can't wait until the roses start blooming (the photo below is of the rosebush...it's making progress!). The roses go over our front door, and they're really pretty.

7. Speaking of our front door, it's almost been a year since we saw our house for the first time. Wow. It's been a ton of work, but definitely worth it.

8. Our bathroom is almost finished. All that's left is finishing putting up the wainscoting, grout the tile in the shower area, and putting in the sink and toilet. We're hoping to at least get the sink and toilet in this week, as our friend that's been helping us with this project has surgery scheduled for Friday. If that could get done we could do the rest by ourselves...I put a post up of the progress with pictures soon.

9. Homework is calling my name (not that I really want to listen...). Grr.

-carlotta

graveyard

Dun, dun, dunnnn...no, really, it's not scary. :)

Note: not everyone is pictured :)

Yesterday we visited our friends, the Hintzes, for JoJo's fifth birthday (he's in the brown jacket).

They live farther out in the country and the boys wanted to show Jeremiah and me a graveyard in the woods, a ten minute walk away. Needless to say, I brought along my camera.

It was totally overgrown - most of the graves are from the very early 1900s, around the turn of the century.

It was really cool (it looked like something out of a Nancy Drew game I played once), a little creepy, and sad all at the same time. Little Robert didn't even make it to 10 months.

There was something really peaceful about the graveyard, though. I can't explain it. 

Although, I was careful not to step behind the gravestones...some of them got uncovered but the weather, I'm guessing. We couldn't see any coffins (thankfully!), but you could see the first 2 or 3 inches of where the coffin was laid. 

There must have been some settlers in that area, maybe farmers or ranchers, as it must have been really remote then, as it's kind of far out even now. It was kind of strange to just be walking in the woods and then all of a sudden come across a graveyard!

There's something fascinating in about graveyards, though. I always wonder in cemeteries what the people - who are now obviously dead - were like... Sometimes these kind of things are fun to figure out, though...

I never thought I would write a whole post about graveyards. I hope you don't think I'm insanely weird (or whacked out) now... :)

-carlotta