barn light electric

in our kitchen, we have a very outdated ikea fixture that should have been replaced when we replaced 99% of the other fixtures in our house within the first month of living there. the current fixture collects bugs (yuck) and looks horrible. the one saving grace is that it covers a larger amount of the ceiling that needs to be fixed a bit (i.e., spackled). i've been looking at some light fixtures to replace in the kitchen and some of these fixtures from barn light electric are making my heart skip a beat!







i love how most of their awesome fixtures and the vintage pieces even come in various different colors and they sell the edison bulb to compliment the look of their fixtures.

i think it might be time for a kitchen revamp!

happy friday! j and i are having his extended family over tonight to meet our little pup and then dinner at athen's pizza - yumm! no solid plans for the rest of the weekend except spend some time outdoors and maybe work on the house a bit. tgif!

p.s. happy happy birthday to one of my best friends in the universe. she is spending the weekend with her fiance and her new pup and i want to send nothing but magically happy vibes her way. i love you sash! ♥

weekend recap

shortly after j and i started dating, he moved an hour away to work for the summer, so every weekend we could spend every second together and then first thing monday morning, once he got to his office, i would get a weekend recap. these were the best and always made me smile. those weekend recaps were a way for me to remember the wonderful things all over again and again.

here's this past weekend's recap:

breakfast for dinner. dropping plates and mini meltdowns. girl scout cookies and pistachios. laying in the grass. fox bros bbq. toy baskets are meant to be emptied. bath time with townes. takeout with the folks. scary drive home for dad and worried faces. scrambled tofu and vegan pancakes. the social network. highly anticipated provino's dinner. happy 82nd birthday papa. fedoras and animal blankets. doggie dates via skype. townes is a bed crasher.

hope you all had a wonderful weekend ♥

good news

today was a long day. although my company doesn't give us a day off for president's day, i took a PTO day to spend the day in the hospital with my mom and dad. my dad had to go in for an angioplasty, because he'd been having some scary episodes and the preliminary tests weren't able to show a certain area of my dad's heart. i wanted to be able to be there for my dad and i didn't want my mom to be out in the waiting room alone.

after some gross cafeteria food, some starbucks (chocolate croissant = yumm!), and lots of random and outdated magazine reading, we met with the doctor for the consult and then were able to go see my dad. the good news is that everything checked out great, but dad will need to take a few precautions going forward. it was such a relief and i felt lucky that i got to be there for my parents (and bring my dad a celebratory blueberry muffin)!

dad, i love you very much and i'm glad today went well. don't worry, we'll find out what's causing the other issues, but at least we know now that it's not an issue your heart ♥

[image via life magazine]

best kind of love

after a laid back weekend with my boys, i went to work today missing our backyard and the time spent laying around in the sun in our hammock.

at lunch time, i decided to go home to let townes out to go to the bathroom since he wouldn't do this morning and i was worried about him*. when i got home, my j was there with flowers and we had lunch together outside while out little man soaked in the sunshine. i wish all lunches could be so sweet.

we don't have any set plans for valentine's day since we usually don't put as much emphasis into it since we show eachother love every day, but i'll tell you that this short, but oh so sweet lunch date was all i needed. maybe tonight we'll grill out and enjoy more of this nice weather (way to go february)!

happy valentine's day j. i love you to pieces every single day. ♥

*our new pup had his first round of heartworm treatment last week and we've now been having to give him antibiotics and pain medicine every 12 hours. the worst part about this whole thing is he has to go back in 30 days for a double dose of treatment and a whole other month of complete inactivity (a total of 2 months). so far, keeping townes inactive for almost 4 days has been a nightmare. all the little guy wants to do is play and all we want to do is take him to the dog park. sighs. here he is with his little shaved patch where they had to give him the injection.

welcome to miami

so this weekend through the middle of next week, i'll be in miami for a work conference. it's kind of cool because i'm staying at the eden roc, but not really since it's meetings all day followed by late nights.

oh, and we'll be seeing a private concert by foreigner. ha!


too bad i'll just be wanting to be home with my j and my little buddy. townes goes in next wednesday for his bloodwork and xrays and then starts his first heartworm treatment on thursday. we found out today for sure that we'll have to keep townes completely inactive for TWO whole months while the worms break up inside his body. i keep reminding myself that although it will suck, he'll have a long life of playtime as long as he gets better properly.

we gave townes his first bath tonight and he was so good. i'm sure he'll prove us wrong with something eventually, but damn this dog is perfect in every way. lucky ♥

hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

wait and see

i really do promise to stop gushing over our new pup one of these days, but right now we are still in the honeymoon stage (ok well maybe that will never change but i'll find other things to write about)!

j put together this video of the day we adopted townes. these videos and pictures were taken that day even though he didn't get to come home with us.


Untitled from nicole stanaland on Vimeo.
music: "ski chalet" by futurebirds

we are having the best time ever. he's getting more and more comfortable ever day with us! i am taking off work tomorrow just to spend the day with the little guy. unfortunately it will be rainy and 38 degrees, but judging by the weather in other states right now i guess i'll take it as long as it's not snow.

we have a few puppy play dates planned this week/ weekend and we can not wait for townes to get to play with some other dogs (since i'm sure he's lonely considering he shared a cage with 4 other dogs for over 4 months) and we get to see our lovely friends. good times and lots of love! ♥