Pretty Chandelier

(from Brocade Home)

A weekend full of decoration research fun...

My weekend consisted of driving to Round Rock to meet my mom(!), shopping without actually purchasing much, watching HGTV, drinking wine and eating chocolate... The one thing I actually bought was this lamp for my office! So excited, because I've been looking and looking and haven't run across anything I've really liked. I saw a similar lamp I liked that was rather expensive and I would have to order online, in various colors, and I wasn't sure if I'd want it at work. This one is just perfect, because its tiny and will look so cute on my desk :)

Watching HGTV and looking at decorating books and magazines reminded me again that I really love Craftsman style houses, like the one below. When I buy a house I would really love to have one! I can't wait 'til I can put in a garden and have a house of my own, but for now I am very excited about my apartment in San Antonio. I am really looking forward to moving in in a few weeks!

Office plants

I bought 2 new plants today for my office! I am quite excited about them, the first is an angel wing begonia... I love the way the leaves look like wings and end up all spotted like that. The colors are fantastic. It's officially a Cane Begonia and I believe it to be a B. Cracklin Rosie.

The second is this little pinkish plant that we think is a caladium. Now caladiums are elephant ears, so this is a miniture version. (EDIT: I discovered this is actually called Hypoestes phyllostachya, or Polka Dot plant). I am so excited about my plants! Next I want to put them in the same pot with a 3rd variety so I can have a nice little one pot garden at work.

The nursery we went to, Green Gate, is wonderful. It had so many beautiful plants and flowers, I am definitely going to come back to it when I get my own place and want some new plants. I want a citrus tree, some tea roses... you know, pretty things.

Hail

On my way to work yesterday morning, driving down I-10, I got walloped by hail. Now, my poor little car is all damaged and very unhappy. The guys at O'Reilly (where I went to get a do it yourself kit) said to just trade it in after I make a claim, that it probably won't even be worth it to me to get repaired. So sometime this weekend, if I have time, I'm going to have to get an estimate for my car and see about getting it repaired. Whether paintless dent removal (which may be expensive since there are SO many) or take it to a body shop, it seems it'll probably run around $750-2,000. I'm not even sure if its worth it. I wanted to keep the car for several more years, but that may not happen now.

This is so frustrating that it had to happen my first week on the job so I don't have the time, the money or the energy to deal with it. I wish I could chalk this one up to a stupid tax, but unfortunately its just an act of nature I had no control over.

(I wish this was an April Fool's joke, but unfortunately, it is not.)