Spring has sprung and cleaning has begun!

Actually, the real reason we've been cleaning is because we plan on having a revolving door of guests this summer, which is a wonderful thing! Our first visitors will be here in less then 2 weeks, Julie and her son will be coming in so we've spent the last couple of weekends getting ready. Unfortunately, because we're doing such a thorough cleaning, our living room looks like a tornado went thru it. The good news is the bathrooms and the bedrooms look great!

My room is pretty small which doesn't bother me because I don't need a lot of space but because of the size I've never really done much with it. When I moved to FL I let Kathy use my bed frame and I never took it back because it provides me with a couple of inches of extra space at the foot of my bed where I had my dressers. Kat got a new bed and brought my frame back so I set the bed back up which I love my bed but I do miss my risers, which I used for storage under my bed. Having my bed high makes it feel more regal. While Nancy was working on her room I decided to re-arrange things to make more room. Next thing you know, we took off the sliding doors of my closet, moved a dresser in there and switched out my old school tv with a flat screen tv I borrowed from Nancy's brother.

Once the wheels were in motion, I was inspired. I realized my curtain was filthy and since it's way too long for my window I kept it folded over. So I took that off and Nancy and I made a trip to Joanne's to buy fabric and Kim made a new curtain for me. She's a pro, she sewed most of hers. I'm going to get more fabric so that she can also make me some matching throw pillows, score!

One of the things I hated in my room were my metal shelves. I loved having extra shelves and they were free which makes them more appealing but they were always ugly to me. After a little research I decided I would spray paint them. I honestly never thought about spray painting them due to the fact that they were metal. OMG, as soon as sprayed the first shelf, I was in heaven! I love tiffany blue so much! 

Next up, I decided it was time to get a chandelier for my room. I've been wanting one for awhile but you know me, I'd rather spend money on food and travel but it was time. A few years ago I had bought Kim one for her birthday at Ikea and I love it so decided that was the one I wanted. I also found a blog online where someone painted their Ikea chandelier. She even used my color but she used acrylic paints and I went spray paint. Here's her blog in case you would like to do it yourself. 

I didn't think about blogging this when I started cleaning my room so  I don't have a before of my room or  a great before of the chandelier. This is a pic I took in order to remember how the crystals get put back on, the photo didn't help me when it was time to re-assemble. 

And now here is the almost finished product. Yes, I still have stuffed animals on my bed, Ethan loves them (and so do I:).

Now I want a new comforter or bed spread. Probably not a tiffany blue one, a white or cream comforter without the pattern.  I most likely won't get it before Julie gets here, it's not a high priority. I also spray painted my night stand and Nancy bought some trim that we're going to put around one of the sliding mirrors that used to be my closet door and hang it on my wall. I need to have a mirror in my room.

FYI, if you need a professional painter, don't contact me, it was actually worse then this looks, this was after I used vegetable oil and alcohol to try and get it off. I also had blue legs, blue arms a blue chest and a blue face. Nancy already made the smurf joke. 

 

Once I get everything set the way I want, I'll take a pic or video of the rest of the room. BTW, Nancy is also working hard and we'll be painting her room next weekend. Casa de Leiha (and Nancy) is throwing open her doors. Let us know when we should pencil you in. 

Girlfriends…good for the soul (part 1)

Growing up I was surrounded by boys, I did have 5 brothers after all. Then I joined the Army and again I was surrounded by boys (not a bad thing). I've always got along with men and have some great guy friends. While the majority of my friends were men, I've always been blessed with at least one close girl friend wherever I lived (military brat). 

Freshman year was Kirsten, we lived in OR, then we moved to IL and Angie became my best friend thru the beginning of my senior year and then I met Nancy when we moved to WA. I was traumatized having to move my senior year but then I met by best friend for life. Well, until I move out of her house at least:)

Julie arrived the day after I arrived in Korea and we became roommates and best friends. We did everything together, including a lot of drinking. A LOT OF DRINKING. And I know it will shock you to find this out but we also did a lot of eating. I still love Korean food. You could buy a bowl of cheese ramen and a stick of beef for a dollar each. Many a late night meal consisted of that. The funny thing is we would never be really drunk at the same time so we took care of each other. 

When I was stationed in Ft Meade, MD we didn't have to share rooms. My unit consisted mostly of men, not a lot of female camera people in the Army. For awhile there I was the only one in our unit. I didn't mind either way, I could hold my own with the guys. In the room across the hall from me lived Reine-Marie. I actually first became a friend with her co-worker but her co-worker, I believe her name was Jennifer, found a guy and fell out of the picture but Reine and I stayed friends. We would spend weekends heading to either DC or Baltimore, Ft Meade was ideally located. After I got out of the Army I flew back to be Maid of Honor in her wedding.

Way back then we didn't have internet or cell phones so it was easy to fall out of touch with people. A couple of moves (and I moved a lot) and you've lost contact. Then along came Facebook! While we complain about privacy and how often they change the settings I have to say I love FB because it's allowed me to reconnect with people I've thought gone from my life for good. 

While I'm not the greatest at calling often or responding as often as I should to emails, I can  keep in contact, at least superficially  thru FB and when I travel, if I'm lucky, I get to re-connect with long lost friends. And that was what I did when I went to Washington D.C. I got to spend a couple of hours with both Reine-Marie and Julie. Not nearly enough time but I will take whatever time I can get. It was wonderful to re-connect and re-energize our friendship. I've always considered them friends but now they are a part of my present, as well as my past. We've aged wonderfully, haven't we? My excuse is I'm Asian, I have no idea why they still look so gorgeous.

I've seen the light! (UPDATED)

I have always loved candles. My friends would buy me candles and cool candle holders for birthdays and such but while I had them sitting around the house, I never burnt them. They were a special occasion item. 

That is until I was in Vegas hanging out with my friend Rosie. She would come home from work and light candles every night. What an epiphany! Candles are meant to be enjoyed. Not to only sit around looking pretty. Now I would say I burn candles about 4 or 5 nights a week. Mostly in my room but sometimes in the kitchen when it needs freshening up. 

My favorite cheap candles are the Glade Angel Whispers ones, only a couple of bucks, they smell great, not too strong and a very clean smell. My favorite not as cheap ones are the Tommy Bahama candles. They have an exotic scent but aren't too overwhelming and they burn forever! 

I thought I would share this trick with you that I learned from my friend Bailey. The real reason of this post. You know I love to share what little knowledge I have. I was over at her house place recently and she had a jarred candle that had burned so low the wick was out but there was still plenty of candle left so she had it sitting on a stand with a tea light under it. Brilliant! For years I've been throwing out candles once the wick was out. What a waste!

I have this oil diffuser that my brother gave me, that I never used since I prefer to burn candles over scented oils. I broke the candle in pieces and threw about one fourth of it onto the top of the holder. I literally have been burning this fourth of a bottom of a candle for weeks! Since the flame is not directly on it, it burns slower yet I'm still getting the wonderful scent in my room. The only bad thing is now I have to go stock up on tea lights. You know the cheapo in me is excited to get more mileage out of my candles. 

I know it's all very Scentsy like but now you don't have to go thru them. You can  do this with your favorite candles. Just make sure you have a great stand for it, I don't want any fires started because of this.

I've heard from Bailey and she used a Scentsy base for her candles. You definitely need to use something with ventilation otherwise the candle will go out. She also suggests taking the wick out so it burns prettier. 

A Saturday Smile

I hope this brings a smile to your face. Enjoy your friends, love your family and count your blessings. Today is a day to celebrate life and those you love! I always say it and I always mean it, I'm blessed with wonderful friends. Happy Holidays!

What's in a name?

The other day I was watching one of my guilty pleasure shows, The League. It's a comedy about a bunch of fantasy football fanatics, the characters are awful to each other but it's hilarious. I watched this show before I started playing fantasy football but now I love it even more. 

One of the characters on there is named Taco. No one ever meets him and asks, why is your name Taco? He's just Taco. It made me think about other nicknames. Right now, I love the fun football ones, Megatron, Legatron (he's a kicker), Beastmode and The Law Firm to name a few.

For the man in your life

Having trouble finding something for that special man in your life. On EW they had this as their gift of the day and I loved it. Who doesn't love a snuggie? Who doesn't love Batman? A snuggie Batman sounds like a winner to me!  I did buy my nephew snuggie PJs last year that he never wore, what a disappointment, then again, they weren't Batman snuggies! 

Good news Nancy, they also have Wonder Woman!

Hottest Baby Name of 2012

Sophia and Aiden top the list of baby names for 2012 according to this yahoo article. My question is who are the people naming their children after names from 50 Shades of Grey? The name Grey jumped 155 spots and Anastasia is up 43 spots. I think the name Grey is pretty cool but maybe not the best baby name this year. Maybe baby Grey was conceived while reading this book?

I really enjoy unusual baby names but I think the parents need to remember that their children have to live with the names. A family recently named their baby Hashtag. Really? What's her nickname going to be? Hash. With parents like that, I see therapy in her future.

I'm dreaming of a green Christmas!

Nestled oh so nicely on my Christmas tree are Powerball tickets. Nancy picked up $14 worth of tickets yesterday for us. As the old WA state lotto ticket commercial says, "you can't win, if you don't play." Someone at some point will win, why not us? OK the chances are slim that we're going to win, I would say 14 in 425 million chances but that's better then zero chances.

I don't buy lotto tickets often but always find it funny that those of us who don't play on a regular basis will buy when the winning amount gets crazy high. Is 1 million not worth trying for? The reason I don't buy lotto tickets more often is because I'm lazy and I'm cheap. While a ticket is only a dollar, I could use that dollar towards some beef jerky.

Adult diapers outselling baby diapers

Nancy told me about this article, it was a business week article about stocks in Japan and we both took away only one line from it: Last year, for the first time, sales of adult diapers in Japan exceeded those for babies.

Apparently Japan has an aging population. All I could think about was the fact I know I'll be wearing them when I get older.

That was the Thanksgiving that was

I hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I have to say, I think this Thanksgiving is one of my favorites. Since I cooked most of what I needed to cook I stayed in bed watching football when I woke up and then dragged myself into the living room to watch it and do a little cleaning in the kitchen. 

The football game went into overtime so we left the house a little later then planned but since I was planning on getting there early, we weren't really late. We have a family tradition of going to Andy and Christina's house for Thanksgiving and Kimberly and Jeff's house for Christmas. 

What I'm thankful for this year

Tis the season to be thankful! Unless you're from a really dysfunctional family, we're all thankful for our family and friends so I thought it would be fun to think of non-tradional reasons to be thankful. Here's my list:

I'm thankful that my eyes are bigger then my stomach, if my stomach was bigger then my eyes, well, it's not a pretty picture.

Speaking of pretty, I'm thankful that my mini-me is as pretty as the real me. 

Leiha Talks

My plan for Leiha Talks is multiple posts during the day to talk about things that are currently in the news (well mostly pop culture news) so we have somewhere to chat with the knowledge we wouldn't be attacked if our opinions differ.

Due to the fact I launched my blog a little sooner then I had planned (my posts were starting to get dated) I haven't been able to post as much as I had originally planned. Lin and I have been spending hours every day trying to work out the kinks, neither of us are coders or web designers so it's a lot of trial and error. Poor Lin, due to the time difference, she wakes up with a list of questions and can you do this? Why is this not working, etc?

Sexiest Man Alive

Channing Tatum is People's Sexiest Man Alive this year. It was definitely a break out year for him, he co-wrote, co-produced and starred in one of my favorite movies of the year, Magic Mike. Who needs a good plot or good acting when there's beautiful men taking their clothes off? He was sensitive in The Vow and hilarious in 21 Jump Street. 

Prior to this year, I knew his name but wouldn't have been able to pick him out of a line up. He blended with a lot of other actors for me. Is he the sexiest man alive? Based on this cover picture, no. This cover doesn't sell a sexy image. I'll show you my favorite pic of Channing after the jump.

The Kardashians don't live here

One of my favorite gossip sites spends a ton of time talking about Kardashians, Real Housewives, Teen Moms and the like. It's getting to the point where I'm ready to unbookmark them because I want to go there for celebrity news and gossip and to me, these just aren't celebrities!

The Kardashian article du jour was about the fact that Kim had zits on her face! Is that really newsworthy? For the past year I've had to struggle with adult acne, there have been no news article about that (but now that I have my own blog, that could be changing, LOL).

Not so deep thoughts...

We have Gen. Petraeus having an affair with his biographer. There's John Edwards who had an affair with his documentarian. Needless to say, if I was a wife, I would not trust anyone writing an authorized biography or shooting a documentary on my husband. I was going to say female, but you just never know, LOL. I was trying to think of other public affairs that involved biographers or the like. Can you think of any?