Living in STL

SOOO, I have again slacking on updating. Here are some random things:
-I am STILL working on re-upholstering the couch, but it is going to get finished before I start any new projects!
-I re-painted/re-upholstered my hope chest that I have had since I was ~15...I'll add pics later
-Had lots of fun times with my intern friends...including being introduced to Dexter (which i had never watched before now)
-Brent and Kasey visited...We went to a Rams game (which was SO loud) and had a great weekend
-Tommy and Nichole visited the next weekend. I feel like the whole weekend we were laughing because we kept doing funny things...including me barging in on Tommy in the bathroom (oops!) We went to the Arch, Anheuser Busch tour, Art museum, and a couple restaurants.
-I visited home this past weekend and realized I don't really want to visit without Eric coming along. Its just way better when we can go together! But I had fun with my family. Took the girls to Steak & Shake and Katie won a horse in the claw machine (after I told her no one ever wins so don't be disappointed) :)

We are settling in over here in STL. I feel like I have 2 lives, one in Louisville and one here. Its an odd feeling. I think I ended up in the perfect city for a year with my man and my dog. Its been fun so far and I am excited for the rest!

Decorator Extraordinaire

SO, I have lately become obsessed with making our apartment look better. We will have visitors coming to stay soon and I really just want to make it look cute. PLUS, I have been obsessed with interior design shows since about the age of 8. I watched Chirstopher Lowell everyday tell me about chatchkies...

Anyways, I want to reupholster the pull-out couch and recliner in our living room, repaint some furniture, and recover the top of my hope chest...maybe in over my head??? I feel like I would feel productive if I did that and maybe not beat myself up about watching 10 episodes of Law & order SVU and Glee instaed of working on that stupid dissertation thang. I'll update as things go along, but I just purchased some fabric, so I am officially gonna give re-upholstery a shot!

Starting internship 101

So I know I am MIA when all the importante stuff goes down...this is the stuff I wish I would write about so that when I look back on this little blog after I really have graduated, I can remember. ANYWAYS, I have srtaed internship! WHOOOO. This has been a long time coming. Some notes from the last 2.5 weeks,
-Sat through 1 full week of orientations and computer training....blah!!
-LOVE my fellow interns (Jennifer, Jamie, Coral, and Melissa)
-They give me shit for my accent...I am suddenly more aware of the way I talk!'

-I picked rotations and hope they are great and also make me marketable for finding a J-O-B
- Started this week doing Gero/Inpatient Rehab...loving it so far.
-Have gained the new nickname "Tuck" for being from Kentucky...and realized that I idenitfy way more with being from Lou-a-vul than K-Y...fa sho!

SoOO, things are just lovely ova herre in the STL...well except for Eric's bum ankle, but thats a whole nother story (<<a phrase that I realize is KY and makes NO sense). LOVE and MISS my fam and friends, but feeling great about settling in

Keeping myself busy

When I was young, I watched "Interior Motives" with Christopher Lowell everyday after school. I wanted to be an interior decorator :) I still love HGTV and reading blogs about design...especially Centsational Girl. She got me wanting to paint furniture. I have painted a little cabinet before, but didn't take the steps to do a very good job. This time I wanted to do my coffee table. We got it from Eric's parents. They had it for a long time and didn't use it. I've been feeling like we have too much wood finish in our apartment with all hardwoods and different color wood furniture...so the coffee table is the first in a whole line of stuff I wanna paint.
This has been a Godd send because I'm trying to adjust to the new city & knowing no one. While Eric's at work, I have been able to stay busy and productive doing something I find fun...so here is the before & after with a lil detail of how I did it.

1. Sanded (or let Eric sand) the coffee table
2. Used liquid sander on the plastic parts
3. Painted 2 coats of primer
4. Painted 3 coats of a dark gray paint mixed with Floetrol (supposed to slow drying time so you don't see brush strokes)
5. Did 2 coats of sealer to finish the job
6. Still need to spray paint a knob that I took off...not sure what color (black or silver??)

Total time: 3 days
Love the finished result!

Puppy kindergarten

As all of my friends are posting pictures on Facebook of kids heading off to school, I have a dog starting school :) Last night we took Lou to "puppy kindergarten." Its supposed to be good for socialization with other dogs & people. They also work with you on problem solving with training your dog. They have a time called "puppy playtime" where everybody just lets their dogs of the leashes and they play. There were about 15 puppies. They all went nuts running around and jumping all over each other....all except for Lou. He would NOT move. He wanted to get in our lap so we stood up and moved to try to get him to run around...so he ran to the people next to us like "help me!" Hopefully, he will be more friendly next time. Later there was "pass the puppy" when you try to get the dogs used to new people and everyone passes their dogs around He was super chill with that...he snuggled everyone. Ha! I'm really happy we did this though. It gave me a chance to get out of the apartment and meet people...and a reason to get dressed and fix my hair instead of lounging on the couch all day. :) start work on Monday! Get to meet the other interns tomorrow at lunch at Schlafly's Bottling...hope they are nice!

Lou

We have had Lou for about a week now. This is my first dog that is really mine & not a family dog so I've been trying my best to train him to make things easier later. He is a funny dog (p.s. if you've never watched Demitri Martin's Bruce the Funny Dog you should check it out)
-Lou snorts/blows his nose at me when he is mad...
-He loves belly rubs! Goes nuts for em
-He has bad dreams sometimes & starts freakin out in his sleep
-He pounces around when chasing something
-He likes to "dig" and hide his toys and gets mad if we find them
-He is a good dog & pretty smart too :)
-He now weighs about 10lbs so we are excited to see how big he'll get...
I am lucky to have him around for when I miss home & family!

Bored

Realizing it is going to take work to get used to living in a city where I only know one person (eric). While he works, I am bored...hoping once I start working this will get easier.
One good thing, I have Lou to keep me company