Life, Liberty, Ups & Downs

Happy Memorial Day! I was so excited to put this up because it was the first thing I bought for our new house last summer while we waited to close on it.

The horror! I finally convinced Hubby that we needed a screw in the door to hang all my signs. He was absolutely against this, but gave in when he saw how much it was going to scratch the door! I put felt stickers on the back to avoid some of the scratching.

While we were hanging the sign, we decided to change out the hardware on our front door. It was brass so we ordered new brushed nickel hardware from the manufacturer.

Here's where the whole night goes bad...I tripped over the drill with a sharp drill bit in it. NO! Horrible pain! I looked down and there was blood everywhere!

I cut my two toes on my left foot so bad that it took 2 hours to stop the bleeding! In the morning I went to change the band-aid and it started up again! So I was sitting at work all day like an idiot with 2 band-aids on top of each other and my toe wrapped up in a bloody kleenex.

The weird part is that my mom dropped a gardening shears on her toe on Tuesday and my grandma broke her toe this week too. My family is cursed with toe injuries!

And on a good note, another blog award!

This one is from Jill over at Westbrooke Drive. Thank you, Jill!

I'm supposed to share 7 things about myself.

1. I'm a girly girl, but I love watching cop shows like Cops, Law & Order, Jail, 48 Hours Mystery, Lockup, etc.

2. I was a gymnast and dancer growing up and would argue with anyone who challenged me that these were not considered sports. They ARE!

3. I have a work fish named Mr. Bubbles. Yes, a work fish which means he lives at work. Coworkers come to visit him and say hi during the day.

4. I wear a size 8.5 shoe now, but when I was a kid, my feet were huge. I started wearing women's size shoes in 3rd grade. So glad they finally stopped growing!

5. I eat a bowl of cereal every single day.

6. I've never been to Las Vegas and I feel like the last person on Earth that's never been there.

7. Hubby taught me to cook. I refused to do it until a couple years ago!

I want to pass this one on to three sweet bloggers who have left me such nice comments lately.

Debbie at Where's My Rolling Pin?
Cheryl at Sew Can Do
Malia at Yesterday on Tuesday

Have a great holiday everyone! Share your ups and downs from the weekend!

Summer Wish List

The other day Hubby and I were talking about how our lives have changed so much in the last year. We miss the fun things we used to do while we waited and waited for our house to sell. Now our lives are so busy with the new house and it's a completely different lifestyle. We're so wrapped up in getting things done on the house that we forget to have fun!

Last summer we:

Went to the Lilac Fest and took lots of beautiful pictures...

PRAYED our house would finally sell after 18 months on the market during the recession. It finally did! So we packed up 5 years of stuff to move once...and then again 2 months later...

(Notice how Kitty loved the jungle gym we created for him!)
And we dined at a tiki restaurant to celebrate our anniversary in the middle of all the moving drama...

I'm really trying to work on ways to make my life less stressful and more fun, so we decided to come up with a list of must-do things for THIS summer. The only rule was that everything on the list could not be something for the house that would stress us out.

So far we have:

1. go for a bike ride

2. dine al fresco

3. have a cigar night in the backyard (kind of an inside joke b/c we did this at our old house on the balcony off our bedroom one day)

4. buy ice cream from the truck that drives around our neighborhood every night

5. run my first 5k race (as long as my body isn't broken)

6. do cartwheels in the grass like the neighborhood kids

7. feed ducks in the park (I'm supposed to do this alone because I was told I am too old for this)

8. go to a tapas restaurant

9. hit up my usual summer craft fairs

10. do something fun for our anniversary in August

Do you have any goals you'd like to accomplish this summer? Any activities that you must try?

Linking up to:

The 2 Dollar, 2 Minute Necklace

I was wandering around the craft store one day, and of course, I had to stop in the clearance section. (You all know that's my favorite spot in every store!)

Anyway, I ran across these cool gold charms marked down to $1 and I knew I had to do something with them. I'm really into keys lately, so I was super excited to make something!

I also found a package with 2 thin gold chains for $1. While one of the chains wasn't long enough on it's own, when I put them together, they were the perfect length for a longer necklace.

A total of about 2 minutes of work for a cute accessory!

Linking up to:
Blue Cricket Design: Show & Tell
Whatever Goes Wednesday at Someday Crafts
Works for Me Wednesday
Show us What You're Workin' With
Make it Yours Day
Spotlight on Yourself

You've got mail

Back in the fall when we first moved into our new house, I posted about our lovely mailbox.

While it might fit someone's taste, it's a little too feminine and girly for my house.

So after a long winter and searching for weeks for the perfect mailbox style and size, I finally found one that I liked.

I really liked this one from Restoration Hardware, but I found a very similar one for half the price!

Presenting our new mailbox...

My house is happy now.

Heavenly Hummus

I made this recipe to bring to work and everyone loved it, so I wanted to share it with you.

Ingredients:
• 2 cloves of minced garlic
• 4 T lemon juice
• 1 (19 oz.) can garbanzo beans (be sure to save 1/4 c of the liquid)
• 1/2 t salt
• cumin to taste
• 3 T tahini (What is tahini? See here.)
• pita bread

In a blender, mix the garlic, garbanzo beans, and reserved liquid from the garbanzo bean can. You can also take a few of the garbanzo beans from the can and save them for a garnish on the top of the dip before you serve. Blend well and then add lemon juice, tahini, salt, and cumin.

Blend until creamy

Cut pita bread into small slices for dipping

Pour blended hummus into a serving dish and garnish with some extra garbanzo beans

Serve with sliced pita bread. Yum!

Linking up to:

Waterwaif: Follow Me Friday

Quick & Easy DIY Belt

Wanna see one my most prized possessions?

It's this belt.


I wear this belt every single day and could not go without it. It's hard to find pants that fit perfectly so I pretty much have to wear it so I don't give anyone a peep show! A few times I thought I lost it and I just almost started crying!

So I wear this belt every day, but there are a few shirts that it doesn't work with. You can see the dark belt through light-colored shirts, so I needed a new solution.

I bought a similar style belt at the thrift store for 75 cents so I could use the metal loops. You can also buy metal D-rings at a craft store, but I didn't see the size I wanted.

I bought some 1 inch wide heavy trim from the craft store.
You could also use ribbon or a heavy fabric.
I cut the belt to the same size as my favorite black one.
Then I folded one edge over and pinned it.

I sewed two thin lines and reinforced both edges to make sure it wouldn't unravel.

Then I took the metal D-rings I bought and folded the belt fabric around them.
Again, I sewed 2 lines and reinforced both so the stitches wouldn't unravel.On unfinished edges, I like to use clear nailpolish to keep them from unraveling.

And the final product...Perfect for those light-colored shirts!

Linking up to:
Let the Creative Juices Flow
Blue Cricket Design: Show & Tell
Show us what you're workin' with Wednesday
Sew Much Ado: We Did It Wednesday
Trendy Treehouse: Creative Share
Creative Moms - Show & Tell
Hookin' Up with HOH

How do happy people get so happy?

"Being happy doesn't mean that everything is perfect.

It means that you've decided to look beyond the imperfections."

The name of this blog is The Pursuit of Happiness because I wanted to find ways to make myself a happier person through creative outlets. During stressful times in my life, I have a really hard time finding the happiness in my life and I can only focus on the negatives. I'm trying to make an effort to be more positive and happy because I think it can only make my life better. The people around me deserve to be around a happy, pleasant person instead of a grouch.Do you have certain things that you do for yourself to stay positive? How do happy people stay so darn happy? Were they just born that way? Are they just optimistic people? I need some feedback...

And on the theme of being happy, my friend Christina over at Finally Mom happened to give me this Happy 101 award and I'm very honored!

Rules of the award:

1. Copy and paste the award on your blog.

2. List who gave the award to you and list a link to her blog (or hyperlink).

3. List 10 things that make you happy.

4. Pass the award on to other bloggers and visit their blog to let them know about the award

10 Things That Make Me Happy
• a good bargain
• a day off of work
• the feeling after an awesome workout
• snuggling with Hubby and Kitty in our comfy bed
• cupcakes, donuts, cake, cookies...ok, any sweet treats will work!• finishing a craft
• driving with the windows down
• when someone goes out of their way to do something nice for me
• the sound of the ice cream truck driving down the street
• sweet comments on my blog (hint, hint!)

And now I'm passing this on to a few of my friends…I always have such a hard time with this because I know some of you think these are silly and there's just too many great blogs to pick from!
The Adventures of Goober Grape & Monkey Man
Magically Ordinary

And one MORE reason to be happy is this Sweet Blog award from Liz at Frugal Science! Liz always posts awesome coupons and deals she found and you know how I love a bargain!

I'd like to pass the Sweet Blog award along to 2 blogs that I enjoy...
Adventures of Faith
Misadventures of a Healthy Life

And don't forget to leave me your opinions on how to be a happy person. How do you do it?

Saying HELLO...

to all of my new visitors today from New Friend Friday!

And HELLO to the bloggers I already know who are stopping by...



I am super excited to be off work today to go to a couple of doctor's appointments and do some shopping! What are your plans for the weekend?

Make Your Own Deli Pickles

There's a certain flavor of pickle that I love and you can't find it in stores. It's the Kosher deli pickle taste that I love and it's so hard to find a good one these days.

I did some research on deli pickle recipes and finally had a chance to try them out. Beware, it takes about a week to make these, so you have to be patient : )

(This recipe makes 4-6 small pickles)

Ingredients & Supplies:
• 4 firm pickling cucumbers
• 1 T salt
• 2 T minced garlic
• bunch of fresh dill
• 1 T coriander
• 1 T black pepper
• ice cubes
• 4 cups water
• several large jars (I used some old pasta sauce jars)

Wash the cucumber and cut the ends off

Soak the cucumbers in ice water for a few hours.

After the cucumber is done soaking, combine the salt and 3 cups of water in a large bowl.

In each jar, put as many pickles as you can inside. Then add the dill, garlic, and spices.

Pour the salt water into the jar. Fill the jar almost all the way, but leave an inch or so empty. If you need more water to fill the jar, you can add some.

Tighten the cover of the jar and turn it upside down to make sure nothing comes out.
Then tighten it again to make sure. You don't want the jar to leak while you wait for your pickles.

Place the jar upside down with a towel over it in a dark, cool place. (I'm laughing at our idea to put the pickles in our bathroom closet while we wait for the new vanity to come in. Notice the blue tape still on the floor waiting for paint!)

The next day, check the jars to make sure they didn't leak. You may need to tighten the cover again. It's difficult, but leave your pickles alone for 5 days.

After 5 days, it's finally time to get your pickles! I put mine in the fridge for a few hours to get cold before I tried them.

Enjoy! Worth the wait!
Perfect for a spring BBQ!

Linking up to:
Hooking up w/ HOH
Strut Your Stuff Thursday
Thrifty Thursday Party at Homebody

Lovely Spring Surprises

We moved into our house in September, so we only saw the plants that were around in the fall. Nothing to special so we planned to make some changes this summer.

So imagine my shock when I found these outside one day!

Ok, so there's only one blooming plant right now and 2 that are still maturing, but I love them!

We have a small tree in front of our house and I never thought much about it. So I was shocked when I noticed purple flowers starting to come in. I have always wanted a tree with flowers ever since I was little (and purple was always my favorite)

I wish the flowers would bloom all summer so we could enjoy them even longer!

And this surprise is Kitty's favorite - We have a family of birds that lives in the tree against the house. Kitty spends hours sitting in the window watching them, so I decided to get them some bird seed. A squirrel got to it way too fast and knocked it down, but hopefully the little birds got something to eat too.

Happy Spring!