Thursday night is date night

So Antz asked me out on a date 8th grade style and of course I accepted. He took me to a Thai restaurant close to his job that he went to on Tuesday and could not stop raving about how great the food was and how chic the place looked. It was pretty impressive and the waitress was super nice. The food wasn't my absolute favorite but the shrimp pad thai was yummy and the chicken satay was so-so. I would try it again, take my Mom.  

After dinner I had a sudden and urgent craving for almond cookies. We walked along Brand Blvd stopping in chinese restaurants with no luck. I called my Mom and she said try Whole Foods or Gelsons, so we went to Silverlake Gelsons. Boohoo, they didn't have them but I happily bumped into my new pals Joice and Hlynur *he's Icelandic* and they suggested a Chinese place around the corner. Antz went to check while I used Gelson's potty which is the nicest public restroom I've seen.

So when I finished tinkling, Antz had a small brown bag filled with goodness. They were 10 for $1.50, how could such yumminess be so cheap? As I am blogging I am munching my sweet cookies.

No major nursery updates, still waiting for my Sasquash poster to arrive. In baby shower news, I was having guest list issues, I was trying to keep it at 4 tables but one table had 14 guests and it only seats 12. So if I had to add a table, it doesn't make sense to just seat 2 people so I added 4 more guests and I'm back to 5 tables and 48 guests. It's actually better because I can invite my old friends and not feel guilty and my seating chart is perfect. Most of my favors, supplies and decorations come in packs of 48 so I won't need to make any additional purchases. My budget has now increased by $250 but there's plenty of time to figure it out. So sadly I am 3 weeks behind on my preggo portraits so I'll have to get busy this weekend. I have been having a pain in my right rib and today while cleaning I felt faint so basically, I'm trying to come up with excuses for looking awful and not being in a photographic mood. I'll have to endure some wardrobe changes but this weekend I'll catch up on my weeks. Don't tell Olivia her Mommy is lame!

It's curtain time in the living room

Today was Christmas because my curtains arrived via UPS!

I was worried I would miss them because I went out to have lunch with Antz, Story, Dave & Warren. My UPS guy didn't ring my bell as he usually does but he tossed the package over the fence which sucks because he could have broken Olivia's owl bank. Luckily it's all in tact and my curtains look like they will improve the room greatly. They are too sheer so it looks like the mini blinds may stay put. Maybe tomorrow I'll give the windows and sills a good scrubbing.
This morning Antz and I somehow woke up before 8am without Lola throwing her regular feed-me tantrum. It was a sunny morning so we wandered around the backyard. Antz used our new fruit picker on the lemon tree. As I was looking at the upper patio, I was trying to mentally see how the tables and chairs would fit. Antz keeps assuring me that it will fit and he suggested I buy a black linen cloth for our table with the umbrella hole since Pico Party Rents doesn't carry them. He also suggested that we ask our gardener to trim down the orange tree that is blocking part of the yard.

I need to take the measuring tape out and confirm that a 60" round table and 9 chairs will fit on the patio with enough room for a 5ft table for the food and a gift/games table. Antz thinks we should put the gift/games table downstairs so guests can drop them off and it won't be so tight on the patio but I was considering opening the presents so that may not work. He assures me once we have the tables and chairs he will make it all work out so I trust him. He did mention something I completely spaced out about, but that's because we are not coffee drinkers. He said we should serve coffee with the desserts, Starbucks is the best deal for $12 for 12 servings.

So cute, we are having caffeine and non-caff and it includes cups, stirrers, sugar, and cream. We also took another look at the linen swatches and decided that royal blue is much too dark and we'll choose turqouise.

I'll have a better idea when I get the feathers. I am still having guest list problems because I want to keep the total at 45 but I want to invite 4 more friends from Antz job and that means I have to cut 4 of my friends even though I don't see them often. I am also $218 over budget.

Nursery Update

I am still waiting *impatiently* for the tax refund to deposit into our bank account. I am almost glad I haven't started to purchase the big ticket items because I found a better website for the furniture. I was planning to buy at modern nursery because they don't charge taxes or shipping but I found a site that offers a $175 gift card with any purchase over $499. So if I buy my Oeuf furniture from this site

totsnstyle

I can buy a Naturepedic Organic Cotton Classic 150 Seamless Crib Mattress and get $175 off. Read the reviews and it sounds like a great mattress.

Sounds pretty sweet to me! That makes room for this awesome find I stumbled across this morning.

I must have this hutch, the lack shelves aren't going to provide the storage I need and this hutch looks better in the room. I somehow calculated the cost in the budget and it works out. There are a few other items I'm adding to the list.

This site is in Japan, they only accept Yen as payment, it comes out to $78 for the gift set. I am bummed that my Totoro musicbox is sold out.

I'll give Little Tokyo a look to see if they may carry the musicbox but it's a pretty rare item. So the room will hopefully look like this in a month. That is if we ever decide to paint :)

Let's get Cooking!

What a lovely Monday. I went to see Gilli, my acupuncturist, I let her know I was having a pain in my right rib and she said it was common and needled me up. She gave me a pretty awesome massage and I slept like I had been drugged for the hour. After that I stopped by Pico Party Rents to see if I could negotiage the price of the chiavari chairs but the best they could do was 10% off. That sounds good to me, any discount works. Next on my errands was Target, I don't know why I chose the Target in West Hollywood but of course it was packed like a Saturday afternoon. Maybe I was hoping to bump into Neil Patrick Harris or someone but no luck. I did luck out on new pots and baking sheet for under my $150 budget.

So now that I have pretty new pots and pans I need to get cooking! I have made a list of receipes I want to try out.

Shrimp/Chicken Pad Thai Noodles
Lasagna
Banana Nut Bread
Cajun seasoned fried chicken and biscuits
Turkey or chicken pot pie
Dutch apple strudel pie
Southern mac & cheese
Sesame Shrimp Skewers
Sweet and sticky rice
Apple Crisp
Homemade pesto sauce for sandwich dipping
And hopefully traditional Thanksgiving dinner this year

I have a Real Simple receipe book that I'd like to start using. I am completely novice when it comes to cooking but now that we are having a little one, it'd be nice to be able to make more than cereal for her. I am excited to learn how to cook basics, for example I went through 6 eggs before I could make one successful sunny side up. Even then by the time I finish cooking eggs, the bacon and pancakes are cold.

Adventures at Home Depot

Saturday night Antz sold the TV stand but we had to deliver it in Silverlake, $60! He bought it at Ikea 5 years ago in the "As-Is" section for $80 so it was a good deal. Goodbye old TV stand.

We went back to Home Depot to get a refund for the microwave installation *sweet*. I couldn't resist picking up a bottle of Aunt Martha's Hardwood Floor cleaner.

We then grabbed dinner and headed home. We totally flaked on painting this weekend but I have the paint and there's plenty of time. I feel like Antz totally deserved some time off since he has been working so hard all week. We may start next Friday. Sunday we cleaned out Antz closet to make room for Liv's clothes and sorted more things for donating.

Liv's tiny closet nook

We are about 75% organized and close to finding everything a home. His tools are going to the garage but not until we get it repaired. We placed a few more things for sale on Craigslist but I doubt we will sell them. We went to The Right Start in Pasadena to use my 20% off coupon however I couldn't find anything I just had to have. Most of the items we liked I am registered for so it was hard to make a purchase. The coupon expires on 3/11 so I'll think about it, I'm considering the Peg Perego Primo Viaggio Infant Car Seat but they only have black and red in stock. Besides, my Mom said she wanted to buy the car seat as our bebe shower gift. I'm just worried it will sell out on Amazon by May :(

The good thing about being at The Right Start was we talked to the saleswoman about the Bugaboo Bee because I was worried it was discontinued. She said it's not, however, a new and improved version of the Bee was coming out in early May that would be wider and many of the previous problems with the Bee would have been fixed. Awesome! I would have bought the older version and been bummed out. Even new colors will be available. So after that we headed over to Antz Mom's house and hung out. Not much is going on this week. I am going to acupuncture at 1:30 and Aimee is coming over on Sunday for lunch and check out the new stove. Oh and by the way, I finally christened the stove last night with my first meal, a grilled cheese sandwich.

It was one fucking yummy grilled cheese though!