I totally stole this idea from Ashley and Tara

Alternative titles include: "Letting my geek flag fly" and "I think my husband is going to hate this one"

Warning: I start to lose coherency at the end because of all the hotness. I apologize in advance.

I have to give Tara and Ashley props for blogging about their TV boyfriends and making me realize that I absolutely must do the same thing. I have been putting off this post because it illustrates exactly how much TV I do watch, which is a lot. But, what are blogs supposed to be if not accurate representations of their authors?

There is nothing quite like an excellent TV show. I am a complete TV geek. I love me some good TV. Not sure how many ways I can say that or why I keep saying it. I don't watch reality shows, except for project runway. I love shows with a twist, rather than run-of-the-mill procedurals (though I have watched those too) and sitcoms (I find most things filmed in front of a live studio audience to be boring and predictable). What I really like are off-beat dramas and sci-fi/fantasy - anything that takes me out of my element, I absolutely love. To tell you the truth though, I will watch pretty much anything with good characters.

But, I digress, on to the hot stuff...

TV Boyfriends/Girlfriends are those characters that you feel a connection to - you are excited when they appear, they make you laugh, you are pretty happy when they hook up with someone because you get to see them kiss (etc...!). I'm sure you know what I mean - your TV crushes.

Since I'm a total TV slut, I had a hard time narrowing this down to my top 10 15 27- I had to eliminate older shows. Please share your own TV boyfriends/girlfriends in the comments and/or in your own post. You have no idea how much fun this is. Remember, as always, this is a judgment-free zone.

Here we go, counting down to #1!

The Happiest Halloween on Earth

I am so excited for October so I can give you my posts and tutorials for halloween decorations and other Halloween party fun. I am trying to hold off until then, but I'm getting caught up in the spirit of Halloween (no pun intended). Last year, I didn't want to post anything leading up to Halloween, because it would ruin the fun for a lot of my party guests who read this blog. This year, I can post last year's tutorials and I don't have to worry about ruining anything because (sigh) we are not having a party this year. :-(

Instead, Mike and I will be attending this one:

(source)

Yep, that is Cinderella's castle. We are going to Mickey's Not-so-Scary Halloween Party! We are actually going to go to the one that Thursday as Saturday's (Halloween) is bound to be insane. On Halloween night, we will probably check out the action in Downtown Disney.

I am pretty disappointed about not being able to hang out with all my friends and dress up and make our house all spooky, but the opportunity to go to Florida this Halloween fell into our laps and we just had to take it. Plus, a lot of our friends are going here Halloween weekend so party strategy was going to be difficult as it is.

Mike's company is sending him to a conference at Disneyworld so we get to stay at Disney's Contemporary Resort and get 4-day passes to Disneyworld at sickeningly cheap rates. Plus a free flight for Mike!

We couldn't let our reputation as best house in the neighborhood be ruined, however, so someone in my family (most likely my mom) will be hanging out there to hand out candy while we are gone. And of course, we will still decorate the outside in the insanely creepy fashion to which the neighborhood has become accustomed.

Now I just need a comfortable and family-friendly costume that I can wear around Magic Kingdom for a night. Suggestions?

The husband's office: before and after

I decided that, for my husband's birthday, I was going to give him something he never had before - a home office. We have an extra spare bedroom in our house that had been used as a place to just put random junk - holiday decorations, storage, all the childhood treasures my Mom sent to me after she cleaned out my old room, etc. During the process, I have discovered the secret to getting an impossible, daunting task done: have a deadline and plan ahead. I picked out the furniture and decor based on Mike's taste and bought it a little at a time, and put in a couple of weekends of room clean-out and organization. I managed to utilize the spare room closets rather than storing everything in the middle of the floor (who would have thought that would be a good idea??). Mike knew he was getting an office, but he didn't know anything about what it would look like.

Without further ado, here are the before pics. Don't judge me too harshly, I'm a busy person. Also, the rest of my house looks just fine.

Sad, right? You can barely even see the old futon cover of which I was not a fan - the dark brown always made this room feel like a cave.

And here are the after pics of Mike's spunky, colorful office.

Sorry about the semi-crappy photos. The lighting in the room was not so great. It's super cool in person. The awesome polka dot futon cover and the sweet throw pillows are from tonic living which has an awesome array of fabrics and they even do custom curtains and pillows. We have some bolsters in the old futon fabric that I am eventually going to get re-covered in the same sweet polka dot style. The desk and chair are from cb2, Crate & Barrel's mod off-shoot. The trash can, bookcase, document/magazine files, magnetic clock, orange magnetic boards, and organizational boxes are from the glorious ikea. We spent several hours there.

The Keep Calm and Rock On poster and the camera poster are from the poster list. I thought it was more fun to hang them with colorful binder clips, rather than some boring, traditional way. The magnets on the boards, that you actually can't see all that well, are video game themed magnets that I bought on etsy. The vintage fan is from junkculture on etsy, and last but definitely not least, Ferrets Don't Get No Respect is a print of an awesome painting by my blog buddy, Shannon McLaughlin. Some day, I'm going to own more of the series, Say Hello to my Little Friends, maybe even save my pennies and pick up an original.  

Soon after moving in, the hus bought cool white speakers to fit the vibe and put a bunch of Wired magazines in the document holders.

TV Nostalgia - The Dick Van Dyke show

My brother was hanging out with me this weekend and we decided to watch some of our favorite episodes of the Dick Van Dyke show. If you have never seen it, you should definitely give it a watch. I am convinced that our modern comedy shows would not exist without their roots in 60s sitcoms like this. The basic premise of the show is that Van Dyke's character, Rob Petrie, husband to Laura, father to Richie, is a comedy writer for a popular sketch show called the Alan Brady Show. Think of it as a precursor to SNL or the fictitious TGS that forms the basis for the show 30 Rock (which I am absolutely convinced would not exist without the Dick Van Dyke show).

It is just absolutely hilarious. Story lines include the one where Rob accidentally gets hypnotized to act drunk whenever a bell rings, the one where they write a sketch about a wife who is always opening her husband's mail and she gets caught in the closet with a self-inflating boat (which Laura is convinced is based on her - hilarity ensues), and the reminiscences about the highly entertaining ways in which the characters all originally met. Plus, the cast is full of great performers - in many episodes they dance and sing quite nicely.

One of my favorites was always "It may look like a walnut," where the Petries watch a scary alien invasion movie late at night and then it appears that aliens have invaded in real life!

Thanks to modern technology, I have all of the episodes on my instant streaming netflix, but there are a couple of seasons up on hulu as well. Trust me, despite some cultural figures and references, the funny translates just fine to this century's viewers.

Vintage Sheet Fat Quarter Packs

I found these via Dwell and I have been looking for something like this for ages. I have so many projects in my head that require funky, colorful, vintage fabrics and this seems like a screaming deal!

10 fat quarters (18"x22" cuts) of vintage sheets for $25. Love them! I'm going to make awesome wall art with them - because any kind of project that requires sewing is completely beyond my capabilities.