Our LOST party invitations!

I emailed out these invitations to our local friends earlier today, so I can finally share these on here with you guys. Mike and I are huge LOST fans and thought it would be a blast to have a party for the series finale on Sunday. I have lots of fun things planned-- DHARMA labels for all the food & beverages and lots of LOST themed decorations. But for now I'll just share the invitations:

This DHARMA letter was emailed out to everyone with the customized boarding pass and the Oceanic airline confirmation letter attached to the email.

Department of Heuristics And Research on Material Applications Classified Information

Dear MIKE SOLANO, The DHARMA Initiative would like to personally welcome you as a new member of our Viewing Station team. We are very pleased that you have decided to join us, and look forward to meeting you at the new recruit orientation meeting. Though your assignment will be short, our hope is that you will find it to be an enlightening and rewarding experience. Upon your arrival, you will be given a simple set of instructions for how you and your partner will fulfill the responsibilities associated with the station. Your primary function will be to observe the subjects of our studies. Every observation, regardless of how subtle, is to be processed and analyzed. Your station will be equipped with a large, high definition surveillance monitor. Do not attempt to use the television for anything. We understand you may still have some unanswered questions about The DHARMA Initiative, but please rest assured that any and all questions you may have will be answered upon your arrival to the island. A new recruit orientation has been scheduled for May 23rd at 6:00pm. All new recruits must report to the DHARMA Welcome Center, located at: 38 Tamworth Circle Bella Vista, AR. Your attendance is essential to achieving a greater understanding of the program. For your convenience, The DHARMA Initiative has provided complimentary travel arrangements. Please see your attached letter of confirmation and boarding pass from Oceanic Airlines, a proud DHARMA Initiative partner. Once again, the DHARMA Initiative would like to welcome you to our island, where we are building a prosperous future that can support, enrich, and cradle us all in a peaceful society. On behalf of the DeGroots, Alvar Hanso, and all of us at the DHARMA Initiative, thank you, and good luck. Namaste, Angela Solano The Dharma Initiative

You should be able to click to enlarge both of them. So yeah, I'm a dork but I thought it was pretty freaking cool!

so much better

I feel like I can actually breathe around here now! I love having this privacy, makes me wish I had done it much sooner. I've had some unwanted readers over the past few months and when I checked my sitemeter it kinda freaked me out. I like knowing who is hanging around here!

Going Private :-)

Hey guys, I've decided to go private. It's something I started thinking about a few months ago and have finally decided to pull the trigger. I'd like to be able to share more, not worry about who reads it and just not have my business all over the place. I mean, my twitter and facebook are private, why not my blog? :-) So I'll be making the change next week. I have a list started of people I'll be inviting but I don't want to forget anyone.If we're friends in real life, we talk on facebook, twitter or we're blog friends please email me so I don't forget to add your email!

email me at mrs. angela solano at gmail dot com

thanks!!

storms, reality tv and a weekend trip

It's about to storm here-- the weatherman is predicting huge hail-- thank God for a garage for our cars and good homeowners insurance! Anytime we have any severe weather we know several hours in advance because Ellie starts pacing and freaking out. She absolutely hates storms. Jack Bauer could care less. (I mean come on, he's Jack Bauer! Did you think some thunder and rain would bother him? haha) Mike is off with some friends tonight playing some nerdy games so I have complete control over the tv-- that means some bad reality tv-- Real Housewives of NJ!! Such a guilty pleasure. :-) We're also getting ready for our weekend trip to Tulsa. I am so excited to see Conan O'Brien! The only problem with coming to Tulsa is trying to cram in all the things we want to do in just a day or two. We really miss our Tulsa friends and it's impossible to see everyone on every trip. I'm hoping we can do as much visiting as possible!
And since I hate posting without a picture-- here are a few from our garage sale last weekend:

We call this our 2nd Annual Solano-Farrar Garage Sale. :-) We held it at our friend's Matt & Amy's house and even though the sales were sloooow, we still had a blast. And wow, in the next picture my teeth look enormous... hmmm wtf

thoughts on mother's day

I talked to my mom today and told her happy mother's day. I posted a happy mother's day message to all my twitter friends. Mike even made me dinner tonight since I'm the "mom" to our four fur-kids. But then my friend Kat (an awesome mom by the way!) posted a link to this article on twitter: Why I Hate Mother's Day
and it really clicked for me. It said things that I've always thought... and didn't say because I didn't want to offend those moms that I know. Read it if you like, but I'm going to post some of my favorite parts here:

Mother's Day celebrates a huge lie about the value of women: that mothers are superior beings, that they have done more with their lives and chosen a more difficult path. Ha! Every woman's path is difficult, and many mothers were as equipped to raise children as wire monkey mothers. I say that without judgment: It is, sadly, true. An unhealthy mother's love is withering.  I hate the way the holiday makes all non-mothers, and the daughters of dead mothers, and the mothers of dead or severely damaged children, feel the deepest kind of grief and failure. The non-mothers must sit in their churches, temples, mosques, recovery rooms and pretend to feel good about the day while they are excluded from a holiday that benefits no one but Hallmark and See's. There is no refuge — not at the horse races, movies, malls, museums. Even the turn-off-your-cellphone announcer is going to open by saying, "Happy Mother's Day!" You could always hide in a nice seedy bar, I suppose. Or an ER.

 It perpetuates the dangerous idea that all parents are somehow superior to non-parents. (Meanwhile, we know the worst, skeeviest, most evil people in the world are CEOs and politicians who are proud parents.)

Don't get me wrong: There were times I could have literally died of love for my son, and I've felt stoned on his rich, desperate love for me. But I bristle at the whispered lie that you can know this level of love and self-sacrifice only if you are a parent. We talk about “loving one's child” as if a child were a mystical unicorn. Ninety-eight percent of American parents secretly feel that if you have not had and raised a child, your capacity for love is somehow diminished. Ninety-eight percent of American parents secretly believe that non-parents cannot possibly know what it is to love unconditionally, to be selfless, to put yourself at risk for the gravest loss. But in my experience, it's parents who are prone to exhibit terrible self-satisfaction and selfishness, who can raise children as adjuncts, like rooms added on in a remodel. Their children's value and achievements in the world are reflected glory, necessary for these parents' self-esteem, and sometimes, for the family's survival. This is how children's souls are destroyed. 

 I've been friends with women who have actually said to me that I can't know true selfless love unless I'm a parent. Did they not know how shitty that sounds?? How hurtful that can be to people who choose not to pro-create or how cruel that is to women who can't have children? Anyway, thanks Kat for posting that. I think it's fantastic and something that I really needed to read.

And to my mom-- thanks for being awesome-- for being one of my best friends.

 

Betty White is Amazing

I'll just admit this up front-- The Golden Girls is one of my very favorite tv shows. Betty is a celeb that I love dearly. I've been looking forward to Betty White's SNL episode for so long! I joined the facebook group that started this whole thing months ago and it is so awesome that it actually happened! I watched last night and loved every second. She is a living legend and was freaking hilarious last night! I'm posting her SNL promo pics because she looked amazing:

Our Backyard

Since we just recently had a fence put in, we've never really done anything with the backyard. We've got a huge deck and tons of space and I thought it was finally time to do something with it! I've shared a few pictures of the patio set, but here's the rest! 

It's still such a work in progress, but I'm really happy with it so far:

spearmint:

spearmint & rosemary-both need to be moved to larger containers:

citronella geranium- supposed to keep the bugs away... the jury is still out!

my puny flowerbed: definitely needs more!

my hanging basket-- I took it down to give it some more sun:

our firepit-- we're burning debris right now but it's awesome to use at night:

Jack's favorite spot to annoy our neighbors:

the crazy tree growing in the middle of the deck:

I'm making changes out here almost daily! Lots of new plants, flowers and cleaning up. But, this is quickly becoming my favorite place to hang out. :-)

Wednesday Randomness

just some random pictures from today:

I've been buying fresh flowers every week and recently I've been getting tulips. Love them.

And we've recently discovered the best part about having a fenced in backyard-- Jack Bauer is always sooo worn out in the evenings! He passes out around 8pm and sleeps all night. I love having a tired pup at night-- much less chaos around our house!

and once he realizes you're taking pictures:

haha! look at that nose!

Alabama Style

Check that out. Wow. These girls were waiting at the hotel to greet us as we checked into the conference-- it's a joke, right? LMAO!

A friend told me I'm not allowed to make fun of Arkansas anymore since I've never seen these stylish outfits here. :-)

coolest law firm ever

I just got home from a long girl's weekend in Mobile, Alabama. I attended the national conference for JA. I'm a member of our local chapter and jumped at the chance of attending the conference when I was invited.I have tons of pics and stories that I'll post later this week-- but first wanted to share this.

One of the girls (5 of us went on the trip) has a friend that lives in Mobile. Her husband has a law firm downtown they recently purchased and renovated. It used to be a bar and they kept the actual bar in the lobby of the firm. It was such a cool building!! They keep a few beers on tap and we had a blast playing behind the bar and acting as bartenders. :-) Anyway, hope everyone had a great weekend. I'm trying to play catch up on laundry and housework-- being away for a few days really throws off my schedule!

10 Minute Transformation

With all the long and stressful projects I've been tackling, I decided that I needed some instant gratification. Mike had a plain bulletin board and I had some leftover fabric and 5 minutes later:

I also decided to do something temporarily with the office window:

Not perfect by any means-- the proportions are off, the fabric is wrinkled etc But it's a lot better than the light pink mini blinds that used to be there!
I had the curtain rod and panel already and I just rigged it with some ribbon-- really took about 5 minutes.
 It's a weird window and I really hate the arch. I've been contemplating this window's fate for 6 months! Roman shade? Blinds? Curtain panels? Blah. I ordered some faux silk 95" panels to try and I also want to try some burlap panels. Since I made the burlap panels in the dining room I've been dying to use them somewhere else. They filter just the perfect amount of light and wouldn't block the view entirely.
Some inspiration pictures:

and pics of arched windows with full panels:

I'm never finished

I've been busy as usual! I've been working on about a dozen projects simultaneously (because I'm a glutton for punishment! haha). I seriously feel like it's never ending. I'm in the process of completely redoing our guest room- painting it right now, but new curtains, new accessories maybe even a new bed!

I'm working on convincing Mike that we really need this:

or this:

I'm also putting in new flooring and painting our sun porch. Plus sewing a new roman shade for the office. Seriously. I'm.Never.Finished.

But I love it!

New Eclipse Trailer!

WHOA!

Holy hell, Christina Hendricks is so gorgeous it's ridiculous.

and I just read that Mad Men is coming back in July!! Woohoo!

I've been M.I.A. for a reason :-)

Sorry for the lack of blogging, but I've been busy! I've been working on our backyard and we've accomplished a ton in the past week. We had the sun porch re-screened, had both decks power washed, bought patio furniture, I planted a ton of flowers & started an herb garden etc etc etc Seriously, the list of projects just goes on & on. It's so fantastic to have an outdoor living space- we've eaten dinner on the deck a few nights this week. :-) I'm planning a big post on all the projects, but here's a sneak peek of our progress---
here's the new screened in sun porch:

I'm painting next week and putting in a new tile floor.
and here's the new patio set: