Our British-American Life

Making Sense of Our Garage

With the temperatures dropping steadily, we decided to organize our garage so that we can park both cars in there overnight. No more scraping windshields for us! Though, yesterday was a beautiful summer's day, so who knows what the next few weeks will bring! But at least we can relax knowing that we are prepared for anything.

That dresser on the left has been on my to-do list for a few months now. We snagged it for $15 at a thrift store, with the intent of refinishing it. So far, we have not made any progress, but my hope is to tackle that in the next few weeks. Then once we move it to the guest room upstairs, we can finally put up our stacked bike stand that we got as a wedding gift!

It is definitely a tight two-car garage, but somehow we managed to pull it off. Now, if we can just manage to not accumulate anything else! Ha!

Happy Monday!

Master Bedroom - Paint Reveal!

Apologies for the delay in posting the master bedroom paint color. We just got around to cleaning up the painting supplies and ladders out of our room this morning!

Not all of the photos depict a very accurate portrayal of the color, so even though there are no filters on the photos, they all look slightly different in the daylight. Also, I took them with my iPhone, because I can't find our camera anywhere!

We love the way it turned out! It really brightened up our room. We didn't realize how dreary our bedroom was until we saw this vibrant color on the walls! We want to put in a thicker baseboard and moulding around the doors and windows, as well as crown moulding, but for now we think it looks great!

I can't wait to get some things up on the wall. I have already started collecting pieces for our collage wall, though I expect that will take several months to fully put together before we put them up.

What do you think of the color?

I also daydream about adding these white seersucker tie-up curtains to add to the charm a bit. I seriously love them.

And, of course, I am still daydreaming about buying this quilt from Etsy. The good news is, Chris and I agree on this for our bed. The bad news is, we are saving our pennies to make it happen. :)

Hope your weekend is off to a good start! Get out and joy it... I know we will!

Daylight Savings Saved My Life

Okay, so that is a slight exaggeration, but for the past 6-7 weeks, I have been struggling to wake up in the morning and just an overall lack of energy throughout the day. I assumed it was the change of the season, and it seems to a certain extent that I was right. More specifically, the fact that it was staying dark so much later in the morning. I would leave for work under a blackened sky, and it would stay that way until long after I settled into my cozy office at work.

Well, I am happy to report that with the falling back of time this past weekend, I have a renewed energy! It is light before I finish getting ready for work in the morning and I seem to have adjusted accordingly. Now, believe me, I understand that it won't last for long. But it at least gave me a chance to catch up, which I hope will allow me to adjust a bit easier when the morning darkness returns.

Did you struggle with the changing of the seasons this Fall? How did you compensate for your lack of energy?

I am embarking on a new challenge/adventure this week, and am looking forward to the next few weeks. I will share a bit more once I am successfully on my journey (no, it's not pregnancy! ha!). Stay tuned for more details over the next few weeks!

Is that too much of a tease? Okay, I'll give you a hint. It has to do with healthy living. Any guesses?

American Obsession With the English Accent, Take 9,367:

This year, Chris and I decided to forgo the traditional craziness that happens every Halloween, and do something a bit different. What, you ask? We went out for an Indian curry, followed by a movie in our local theater. Two funny things happened that I felt must be shared here, with all the talk about the American obsession with the English accent and all.

So we had a lovely meal at a quiet little Indian restaurant near the theater, and then made a mad dash for the theater, as it was quite cold out! As we were walking up the steps to the theater, we were chatting away, and this young guy carrying a big sign passes by us. He obviously hears Chris' accent because he literally dropped his sign, trying to turn around and asked Chris where his accent was from. There was a lot of awkward fumbling trying to keep his sign in check, and he seemed a bit desperate to find out where Chris hailed from.

{ I may have to try this sometime. If only so I don't get written off before I even open my mouth! }

Once Chris told him that it was, in fact, an English accent, he responded the way I imagine many people respond to the Queen: awestruck. "That's so cool." He then turned and walked off. That's all he wanted, was to know where Chris' gorgeous accent was from. :)

So, off we went into the theater to buy our tickets.

Funny thing number two doesn't really have anything to do with the English accent, but as it happened last night as well, I might as well share it here.

We really wanted to go to a movie, but there was nothing we really wanted to see that we hadn't already seen, so we opted for one with great reviews, despite our reservations about our interest level. It was called Enough Said, starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, James Gandolfini, & Toni Collette. It had a 96% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes, so we went for it. And truth be told, we both enjoyed it. It wasn't the most creative storyline I've ever heard, but the acting was good and it held our attention. Want to know who else's attention was captured by this movie? The 20 other viewers in the theater. Oh, and did I mention they were all over 70? Ha! Chris and I felt so out of place with every new couple that came into the theater. What started as one other older couple, which we laughed off as a coincidence, of course, quickly became 10 older couples.

Overall, we had a great Halloween. Even though there wasn't really anything Halloween about it. :) I have to admit, I get the excitement around costumes, but for some reason, the holiday really doesn't do much for me. Now, Christmas... that's a great holiday...

P.S. We weren't complete duds when it came to Halloween this year, we DID get pumpkins. Pumpkins I placed on the front porch, fully intending to carve them at some point. Only to have them eaten. Eaten, you ask? Yep, our neighborhood squirrel must have gotten hungry. After the first two got eaten, we assumed it was the pesky raccoons back again. But then Chris caught him in action...

Stay tuned for the reveal of our bedroom this weekend! We painted it last weekend, but have failed to do cleanup, and as there is a ladder blocking half the room, I will wait until we clean up to take our after photos. Which color do you think we chose?

Happy Friday!

Who I Am

I have been thinking a lot lately about what has shaped me into the person that I am today. I should start by pointing out that I am a very reflective person. This helps in understanding which challenges and triumphs from my childhood have developed into things I am either happy or unhappy with in my adult self. And that understanding helps spark the necessary change needed to grow.

For example, I grew up a very quiet and shy person. In turn that meant that I was not very good at establishing new friendships. Not for a lack of wanting, that's for sure, but simply because I wasn't confident enough to speak up and be myself. And to be honest, to this day, this is still something that I work on. I have come a long way, but I would say a good 50% of the time I still relate to that awkward, don't-know-what-to-say little girl more than I care to admit.

I think being a product of a divorce has a strong impact on any children involved. No matter how good or bad the situation is handled. With no one person to blame. Every situation is different, of course, but my childhood had its ups and downs (whose didn't?!) following my parents divorce, leaving me with a certain amount of fear about speaking up. How did I cope with this? I really thought about everything before I said it, to make sure that it was the right thing to say and that it wouldn't upset or hurt anyone. I am pretty sure a therapist would tell me that this played a significant role in my ability to feel comfortable speaking up and being myself with people I didn't know very well. It also meant that thinking through what I was going to say before I said it, became automatic for me. A habit. And as we all know, habits are not easy to break.

Now, I could let that excuse, or reason, hold me back from trying to overcome this fear, or I can take responsibility for my adult self and actually try. And that is what I have done. Though I will not claim to be anywhere near perfect at it, I try. I host group events and hikes, I have learned to make good conversation with strangers, and slowly but surely have built a small army (okay that's an exaggeration, but they are my army) of friends that I know I can count on.

I am not perfect. I go through periods where I don't feel like putting myself through the discomfort of change. Where maybe I even secretly wish that I didn't have to deal with 'insert issue here.' But the truth is, if you don't put yourself in uncomfortable situations throughout your life, and never challenge and push yourself to be better, to do better, you aren't going to get a lot out of your life. And while I have several things that I want to continue working on, to become a better, stronger person, I have to remind myself that in the long run, I am doing myself a favor. In the long run, I will learn to appreciate the hardships I have faced and be so proud that I came out the other side okay. No, more than okay, great!

Chris said something earlier this week as we were chatting about one of those issues that I am struggling to push through, and it really stuck with me. He is always so good at listening and validating my feelings, and when we were wrapping up the conversation, and I was starting to feel better, he said, 'I know how you feel. Everyone has their things, this just happens to be one of yours.' And it was such a great reminder, that although not everyone has this issue, everyone has their struggles and their wishes for things to be different. Reminders like that really help me keep things in perspective. Especially to remember that many others have much worse things to deal with. And it gives me just what I need, to continue pushing forward.

I think as writers, and that is what us bloggers are, writers, though not in the traditional sense of the word, we must make ourselves vulnerable and expose things about ourselves that we might otherwise keep private. That is what helps us stretch and grow, sometimes like a graceful ballerina, and other times like a baby giraffe, slowly becoming the person we want to be.

It also amazes me how therapeutic it is to write about my feelings. For me, it is part of the growth process. It offers me the reflection and perspective that I crave when I feel lost in the maze of life. I will try to work up the courage to share my current thing soon. I would love to hear if you have struggled with the same, and how you worked through it.

Happy Wednesday!

Sustenance Sunday

Today's SS is very exciting. We are making a traditional English Sunday roast - veggie style. I decided to try a whole wheat Yorkshire pudding recipe to go with our roasted potatoes, vegetables and gravy.

I will let you know how it goes!