rach ramblings

House hunting is on the backburner….again.  Hubs decided not to take the job in SF (more on that later), but with everything up in the air, how lean the market inventory is and what this guy says, we’re holding off.  HOWEVER, should the perfect house pop up, we’re ready! All our ducks are in a row, fab credit, down payment and debtless,  so you hear that perfect house for us? We’re ready for you anytime you pop up!  READY!  Too bad some bastard investment firm with 50% or 100% down will snatch you up.  Jerks.

Living at home is proving pretty awesome, the most being paying down our debt.  We spent most of '09  debt free until June when the Hubs charged new computers/office stuff for thenew venture, but we paid that off last month.   Anytime I start to get a little impatient and think we should just get our own place, I remember that I'm super grateful to my parents for our situation.  It would have taken us a lot longer to accomplish our goals if it wasn't for them.  However, being a boomerang kids does have its drawbacks. 

One, I don’t really like to cook.  I can, but my mom’s usually in the kitchen at the same time and meh, when there’s already dinner already bought/made by her, why bother?  The drawback is that the Hubs isn’t too keen on eating Vietnamese food every night.  So, I try to cook.  Turkey meatloaf and macaroni bakes are my staples.  I don’t know what it is about our kitchen, but it’s not conducive to cooking for me.  Maybe the feng shui is off or something.  *shrug*

Two – decorating.  Every time I pass by a Crate and Barrel or pick up Elle Décor I bum out because I don’t have our own space to decorate.  Or do I?  We held off buying new bedroom furniture anticipating buying a home, but now since that’s probably a year off, why not start now?

Our two nightstands and dresser atrociously UGLY.  OMG, I hate them so much.  The Hubs FINALLY bought his new TV after talking about it for AGES.  When we went to Best Buy and he while he was hemming and hawing, I may or may not have blurted out “JUST GET IT!!!!!!” So now that he has his beloved TV, we can start on stuff for the room.

I really need to work on my desk situation.  What I have now is totally cramped. Here’s what my perfect workspace would look like (yes, it includes the Birkin! J)

l'office

I love the neutral palette with pops of color.  I get bored fairly quick, so I can easily change the look and feel of the space with just a few things.  Love it!

I have yet to book our tickets for the Olympics or for Europe, but I am busily prepping for the trip and I by prepping I mean shopping around for awesome coats & jackets.  =P  Here are the contenders. 

J Crew’s Stadium Cloth Winnie Jacket in Bold Butternut.  I normally shy away from yellow as it tends to wash me out, but I can’t resist the bright hue and adorable detailing on this jacket.  It has the military jacket vibe that everyone is so hot for now, but subtle enough that it won’t look dated next season.

Stadium cloth winnie jacket

Anthropologie’s First Frost Coat This baby has 4 ½ out of 5 stars according the 46(!) reviews online.  Everyone seems to love it.  It’s super cute, but I don’t know if it warrants the price tag as it looks a little bit too casual. 

First frost coat

Anthropologie’s Checkered, Please Jacket.  I didn’t give this jacket a second thought when I first saw it, but then Kim over at Anthroholic gave it a rave review and it looked great on her.  It’s uber cute, but ¾ sleeve jackets/coats always throw me off because, dude, what’s the point? However, after I saw how she styled it with long sleeve blouses I thought, “Duh, why didn’t I think of that?”  Also, it just went on sale today, it may be too good to pass up?

Checkered,Please

J Crew’s Wool Ribbon Script Coat.  It was love at first sight when I spotted this coat in the catalog.  It read of a really pale lavender in the catalog, but IRL it looks more dirty dishwater.  The Coal is also gorgeous.  We shall see. 

Wool ribbon script coat

Anthropologie’s Freshly Fallen Coat.  I love this coat, the color, fit and details are fabulous!  I am a bit concerned that I’ll tire of the rosette detailing, but isn’t it gorgeous?

Freshly fallen coat

A flurry of emails flew between the Hubs, my sister and I this morning after we received Travel Zoo's email about fab deals from British Airways.  We almost pulled the trigger for Christmas in London, but plans changed.  No biggie, this works out too.

So our European extravaganza is going to be shorter then I originally wanted/planned.  Due to work commitments, instead of a 3.5 week blowout, we're going to shoot for two weeks BUT we're going to squeeze in a trip to the 2010 Winter Olympics to make up for the shorter European trip.  Awwww yeah!

Tickets to Seattle right now are pretty cheap AND we get to stay in Seattle & Vancouver for free so it looks like we'll be going to our first Olympic Games!  I'm still trying to figure out what tickets we can get events to before we book tickets, but hopefully I'll get that figured out before the end of the week. 

The trip totally killed my NaBloPoMo goal.  Blah.  Still going to keep going.  I'm exhausted from the trip, but I did come to the conclusion this weekend that I would like a new laptop.  The DVD drive on my laptop is on the fritz and our old Macbook is on it's way out.  I'm thinking the 15 incher.  We'll see.

Macbook pro

The Academy Is... played an acoustic version of their set for the San Antonio leg of the AP Fall Ball Tour since Butcher (their drummer) was out sick.  Boo, but thank goodness for Youtube!

Mark your calendars!  Nordstrom’s Half Yearly Sale starts next Wednesday.  I’m crossing my fingers the items I’ve been eyeing will be hitting the sales rack.

Ash Olivia Boot – I’ve decided on the Midnight Blue.  PLEASE GO ON SALE!  I will accept nothing less then 33% off.  It’s been almost three months, I’ve been waiting patiently.

Ash olivia tall boot

Kelsi Rosabella Bootie  - Along with the Ash Oliva boots, these were featured prominently in Nordstrom’s Fall catalog and they too have yet to see a price reduction. 

Kelsi rosabella bootie

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L.A.M.B. Raina Bootie – I’ve already seen this at Neiman’s Last Call, but in a size 10.  Bugger.  If these have already made it to another department store’s outlet, surely they should go on sale soon.  SURELY.

L.a.m.b. raina bootie

I’m not sure about the following as they are fairly new adds to Nordstrom's inventory, but one can wish, eh?

Elizabeth & James D’Orsay – I love the color, shape, perfect addition to my closet.

Elizabeth and james olivia d'orsay

And in the realm of “Cha right, these will never go on sale, but I’m still going to will them to anyway” Chloe boots.

Chloe leather boot

I'm still on the lookout for a cross body bag.  I think I figured out why my search hasn't yielded anything.  I found the puuuuuuuuuuuurfect cross body bag a while back and no other bag has been able to live up to it, but it's way more than I want to spend.  The IT bag is the Louis Vuitton Mahina XS.  I lurve it so much, but gah, the price tag is a bit high.  The shape, supple leather and gold hardware are TDF.  Anyhoo, Marc Jacobs had tons of cross body bags on the runway for Vuitton's Spring 2010 collection, so I'm excited to see the bags when they hit the stores, maybe there will be something I love just as much, but for not as much dough as the Mahina XS?  One can hope, eh?.

Louis-vuitton-bags

I need these leifsdottir items in my closet asap.

Jean Paul Gaultier must have heard Cat & I are taking up tennis lessons because his Spring 2010 collection for Hermes took on a tennis theme complete with a grassy runway.

Holy crap, if I were in the audience, I would lunge onto the runway to kidnap this Birkin.  The color is perfection, I would carry it every.single.day.of.my.life.  Well, I would have to, to justify the cost.

Some models even carried tennis rackets down the runway, love!

I love that even though the pieces are obviously inspired by tennis, they are totes wearable in everyday life.  Well, if one were lucky to wear Hermes in every day life.  Le sigh.

hermes20

To inject a little fabulous into my tennis game, methinks I need this ASAP:

Chanel Tennis Racket

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