Facebook 101 (AKA How to Stay Sane While Staying Connected)

Hi Friends!

Warning: Today's post is pretty whiney, but I felt compelled to "speak" up about something that has left me peeved...and despite what the title may suggest, I'm not going to be teaching you anything, but am rather hoping you can share your wisdom with me.

Lately, I've become more and more aware of how much of a love hate relationship I have with Facebook. On the one hand, I want to stay connected with what is going on in the world, in my friend's/family's lives, and in popular culture. So, I login to FB at least a dozen times a day to see what's up...you know, check out pics, status updates, etc...

I have noticed, however, that lately I roll my eyes a lot more then I used to when I'm browsing through FB. I'm not sure if it's because I'm annoyed at how acceptable it has become to over share (I know I sound sort of hypocritical talking about over sharing in my blog that is about my day-to-day life), or if it's because I dislike how disingenuous some of the comments/updates feel, but I am seriously rolling my eyes a lot (or saying "lame" out loud, which is fine, because I work from home, so my only "office mate" is a little bird that stops by our window every couple of hours). 

Despite all of this, I have not (and doubt I will anytime in the near future) deactivated my account. Why you ask? Probably for the same reason FB has become so popular...I'm curious, like the ability to connect to a gazillion people with the click of my keyboard, and like looking at pictures.

Recently...very, very recently, someone who I had de-friended on FB, re-friended me. I didn't have the heart to ignore or reject their friend request (mostly because they are family). Big mistake. I initially de-friended them because I didn't like their lack of understanding of how to use FB appropriately (i.e., don't tag yourself in my pics when you're clearly not in them, don't share all of my pics on your page, and please please please do not fill my timeline/wall with political spam). So now, I find that I am again "friends" with this person, and again trying to stay calm while this person breaks all of the unspoken rules of FB.

Any advice on how to handle the situation? Mind you, I have addressed as many of the technical privacy issues as I could using FB Help, but am now in need of some sage non-technical advice about how to stay calm and regain control over my social content (yeah, I know how ridiculous "control over my social content" sounds...but you know what I mean...). Friends, I need some advice on how to kindly, nicely, and effectively put an end to annoying FB behavior by a FB friend and real life relative.

Oh and here's a pics from Dr. Love's bday this weekend...

x

Happy Birthday, Dr. Love!!!!!!

Happy happy happy birthday to my Dr. Love!!!!!
 

 I love you so much and love every single minute that I spend with you (even when we're arguing ;) ). Simply put, you are the bomb-diggity booboo and I could not be more proud to be your Mrs. 

x

My Home Office and myStorey

Hi Friends!!

I hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with yummy grub and a lot of love!

Dr. Love and I had a wonderful Thanksgiving break which kicked off with three days of family time with Dr. Love's family followed by a couple days with my family and friends. All-in-all, it was a great holiday week/weekend! Only downfall is that all the activities and fun left this girl sick with, what is now, a week-long cold :(. My cold isn't that bad, but the jaw soreness and pain is a new symptom that I haven't felt before and that I can't seem to get rid of...will let you know how that's going next week ;).

So, as promised, below are some pics of our home office. A couple noteworthy facts: (1) the office is not 100% done yet, as we still have some shelves and photos to put up (hint hint, Dr. Love!),and (2) almost every single thing in the office is from Ikea...and boy are we happy we decided to go the Ikea route for the office. It was soooo much cheaper then other office furniture that I was eye-ing (i.e., Pottery Barn, Z Gallerie), the items were delivered the day after purchase, and for a couple hundred dollars more, the delivery men assembled all of the pieces for us. Totes worth it!

What was once an empty room with a purple wall, is now one of my favorite rooms in the house...there is such a calm in that room...love it!

Now, on to another recent "favorite" of mine. Have you guys heard of myStorey?!?! If you haven't, I highly recommend that you check it out...it is AWESOME! It's what I think the lovechild of a three-way between Facebook, Pinterest, and Amazon would look like. Don't worry, friends. I am well aware that it only takes two lovers to make one baby; however, this is not just any baby, it's a super baby!!! Why super? Well, you can create a profile, upload your pics from FB, then tag (wait for it....wait for it....) all of the lust worthy items you're wearing and your myStorey friends can then shop your look...and visa versa. What a freaking great idea!! And, to make things even better, myStorey doesn't just provide you with multiple sources for the item (with competitive pricing), but product reviews too. Do you see why I call it an all-in-one super baby?!?!?!?!  Check out the site and if you like what you see request an invite to join, then stop by http://tech.co/who-is-los-angeles-hottest-showcasing-startup-2012-11 to vote for myStorey for Los Angeles' Hottest Showcasing Startup.

Also, don't forget to stop by the Mint + Chase blog all this week and next week to get some great holiday gift ideas!!

Enjoy the rest of your Thursday, have a great Friday and weekend, and speak to you all next week!!

x

Happy Thanksgiving

An early Happy Thanksgiving friends!!! I, hopefully, won't be at my computer tomorrow, so I just wanted to stop by and wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Also, our home office design project is finally done and I can't wait to show you the final product. Let's just say, it's my new favorite room in the house.

I'll have plenty of pics for you next week, but in the meantime, enjoy the following sneak-peak:

Again, Happy Thanksgiving and "see" you guys next week!!!

x

Doin' It and Doin' It and Doin' It...Yourself

Hi friends!!

I hope that you all had a lovely week thus far and that your Friday is going great!

Despite what today's post title might suggest, we are not going to talk about sex today ever. I know, I know...disappointing.

I actually wanted to share a recent DIY project with you guys. Now, before I get into the project details, I just want to say that this project was time consuming, but SUPER easy. I generally shy away from DIY projects because I have no patience...and I love to shop. So, when there's an affordable and high-quality option out in the stores, there's no way you're going to see me trying to make one from scratch. Well, in this case, after searching for weeks for a nicely framed dry-erase board, I finally gave up and gave in to the idea of making one from scratch.

Dr. Love and I have finally started on decorating our home office. Can you believe it? The room has pretty much been empty, except for some books and office supplies, for the past year and 3 months. I know, how embarrassing. In our defense, it was kind of nice to have the room empty, because we could use it as a second guest bedroom. Anyway, times have changed...my law practice is picking up, and Mint + Chase has generated quite a bit of paperwork that needs to be filed away.  So, I started phase one of decorating the office, which included, among other things, coming up with the general feel that we wanted for the space and drawing out our furniture placement. Once I got started with that, I got into super time-to-be-organized mode and decided that we desperately needed a home office dry-erase board. I emphasize "home office" because that was specifically why I had such a difficult time finding an already made one. Most of the ones I found were either super "I'm in high school and need to keep track of all of my extra-curricular activities" or "welcome to the meeting, please take your seat-ish." I couldn't find any affordable, but stylish options.

So, like any respectable modern-day woman, I turned to Pinterest and the blogsphere, where I found great DIY ideas. After weeks, I finally went out today and bought all of the necessary materials: frame, uncut matte board, Sharpie marker, dry-erase markers, a ruler (yeah, I had to go buy one...no clue where our ruler was), and some gorgeous stationary. I bought my frame from my absolute favorite frame store, Aaron Brothers, and the stationary from Paper Source.

Below are the results of my DIY:

Yes, this picture was taken in the bathroom...I thought the lighting would be better in there...wrong.

All I did was measure out my lines and then I drew them on the matte board using the Sharpie. The only other items I wrote directly on the matte board with the Sharpie were the days and "Notes."  I later wrote month/year and numbers on the glass with a dry-erase marker. The project was super easy, but took some time (I did some math...crazy, I know...to make sure that my lines were evenly spaced). I can't remember the exact amount of $ I spent on everything, but I estimate that the entire project cost under $30.  If you're looking for a home office dry-erase board, I HIGHLY recommend making one for yourself. You can customize it and it costs less then most similar options out there. 

Finally, I want to leave you with a few pics from our Election Day party last week. It was a great time with a great ending :)

 Em's homemade Obama 2012 election cookies...they were obviously a big hit...look at them!!

 My famous guac to start the party...within the hour, the table was packed with everyone's election night edible contributions...from salads, to tarts, to sausage & cheese, to pizza. Yum!!!

 Caught Em in the act...this pretty girl is not only a great cookie baker/designer, but also a brain (neoroscientist to be specific)...and as of this week, she is also ENGAGED!!!! Yay!!! Congrats to Em and Pete!!

 Shaikes...not only is the girl super cute, she's also a top-notch pastry chef...so guess what she brought? The MOST delicious apple caramel crumble in jars (everyone got one) which was later topped with vanilla ice cream. I am seriously salivating just typing this description out...so so so good.

Oh, did I mention that Shaikes is super stylish too? Check out that Chambray shirt and those lace shorts!

Unfortunately, I was so wrapped up in election results coverage that I forgot to get pics of the other 7/8 people at the party. Basically, it was more of the above...beautiful girls with yummy creations (+ Dr. Love and his friend Nima-nimers). 

Well that's all for this week's post. Remember to stop by the Mint + Chase site to check out what we're blogging about there.

Have a great weekend!!!

Election Day!!

Hi Friends,

Today is one of my favorite days...Election Day in the beautiful U.S.A.!!!

I don't like to get political on my blog, but I just feel compelled to remind everyone that this election, like all elections, is a big deal. There are many important issues to be decided. Most importantly, who you want to lead this country for the next four years.

When making your decision, please keep in mind everything that is at stake. Don't just think about your life in 2012 and what issues matter to you now, but all the issues that will ever be important to you. Why do I say that? This election will affect the trajectory that this country takes, and the people we place in positions of leadership will have the ability to change the moral and political fiber of this country.

I voted for President Barack Obama again this year as I did four years ago and I stand behind him, his policies, his platform, and his morals. Here's to four more years in office for the candidate that, as my dear friend/cousin-in-law Meegs put it, "respects human dignity, health care, gay marriage, women’s rights, science, education, alternative energy, the global economy, global security, opportunity (not just for the privileged), democracy and the judiciary. No one puts me in a binder. :)" Wise words from a wise lady :). 

P.S. I'm hosting an election party tonight and will make sure to snap some pics of all of our election themed drinks/treats for your viewing pleasure...

Happy Halloween!!

Hi Friends!

Let me start out today's post by thanking all of you who have reached out to me in response to last week's post. Thank you so much for all of your kind words, for sharing tales of your own struggles with me, and for making me feel like there are at least ten of you out there that follow this blog. :) You made what would otherwise be a shitty week, a great one. THANK YOU!!

On a completely different note, I just wanted to stop by today to wish you all a very safe and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!! And I want to wish my beautiful cousin, Shay, a very happy birthday!!!

For your entertainment, here are a couple pics from last year's Halloween celebrations...

 Dr. Love + candy = bad news :)

Later today, Dr. Love and I will be prepping for all of our trick-or-treaters this year. Last year was a bust, with only three kids coming by. We attribute this to the fact that we had just moved in a couple months before Halloween 2011, so the neighborhood kids didn't know us. Nowadays, they practically live on our lawn, wave at us every time we drive by, and even stop by for a hello or a quick chat. All that taken into account, I'm feeling pretty good about this year's turnout...like at least 5 kids will come by ;).

On a related, cranky-old woman note, I feel like Halloween is lame-o for kids these days. Remember back in the day when you'd go through neighborhoods for hours and even go through people's haunted houses...in their house! Those days are long gone friends. Now, our neighborhood shopping center has trick-or-treating hours, presumably for safety purposes, so a lot of the kids go there instead of around the neighborhood. Can you say lame? I mean, we freaking live in a nice neighborhood, in a safe city. Psh...kids these days...

x

UPDATE: The first itty bitty kid that rang the doorbell was with his grandparents and looked absolutely and utterly overwhelmed by the whole process of trick-or-treating. Took one piece of candy and checked-out. Next came a set of three seemingly too-old-to-trick-or-treat girls who were very polite, and thus treated kindly despite their age. Then came a loooong period of silence...no kids...nothing. And just when I was about to hang my hat (please refer to picture above) and call it a day, the doorbell rang...and rang...and rang. Like a lot and loudly.  As soon as I got to the door, I understood why. There must have been 25 kids pushing to get to the front of the line to stick their chubby fists in my candy bowl (okay, that sounds beyond inappropriate, but it's a true story). They were pushing, shoving, and taking wayyy too many pieces each. They were like a mob of candy-addicted psychos...kind of cute, to be honest. They were pretty ridiculous, but their parents took the cake by standing back and watching their kids, while laughing and taking pics. No "don't push Charlie," or "only a few pieces, Susie." Nope, just laughter...and admiration...and flashes...weirdos :). All-in-all, it was a great night and Dr. Love and I had a good laugh over our neighborhood mob of kids. Good bunch...good bunch indeed.