the giraffe life

I tried on my first pair of Clarks about eight years ago and fell in love immediately. The fit and comfort can't be beat! Since then I've gone through three identical pairs of sneakers (most recent pair is on the left) and a couple pairs of dress shoes . But my current pair of sneakers had certainly seen better days so I trekked to the mall for a new pair. And was bluntly informed by the salesperson that style had been discontinued two years ago! Oh, the horror.  So began my quest for a suitable replacement. But hunting down a pair of black, slip-on sneakers was harder than I thought. The last place I tried was Nordstorm and of course, there they were! Not exactly the same look, but close enough, and more importantly, super comfy. Why am I worrying about sneakers in February? Because I'm not a huge fan of boots. I mean, I'll wear them when it's necessary (outdoors in the winter) but you won't catch me wearing boots for fun or style. And if I have to w...

Yay Groundhog Day! Groundhog Day isn't a holiday with a festive greeting like Christmas, or even a special food. It's just an excuse to discuss the weather and hope for an early spring. But it was always at least a guarantee of a coloring page or arts and crafts project at school and that makes it a good day in my book. (Maybe one day Mr. G and I will go see the official groundhog in Punxsutawney.) Today I'm at work as usual but dreaming of spring, and even better, summer! Yesterday I bought a new pair of swimsuit bottoms from Hurley , a company that was everywhere in California last year. And one step further, Mr. G and I are going to start planning our annual June anniversary trip. We're considering lots of places, but leaning toward the Caribbean or maybe Colorado? How's your Monday going?

Much like the giraffe tv , I couldn't resist snapping a shot of this lunchbox . .  Do you use a lunchbox? I take my lunch in a mini cooler because my work fridge is crowded and not the most reliable for keeping things chilly. 

I stopped by the thrift shop to drop off two boxes of stuff we decluttered (wooo!) and look what I found . .  (Should I make a bad joke about how they were calling my name? haha ) Alas, they weren't my size (or style, really) but it was cool to see my name as a shoe brand. linking up for wordless Wednesday

I bought two tank tops at Target five years ago and wear them constantly. Alone in the summer, and under sweaters or hoodies in the winter. They're still holding up, but had lost most of their color and elasticity by last summer, so I relegated them to wear during gardening, yoga, and hanging around the house. When I saw Target had tank tops on sale last week, that was the push I needed to buy a few new ones. Rather than drive to Target and then the grocery store, we decided to just bring a cooler and do our food shopping at Target too. Once we started wandering the food aisles (we rarely shop there and were pretty lost) we saw a bunch of items that advertised "Made in Australia."  It seems Target is featuring Australian flavors. (Or maybe this is typical and it's just that I visit too infrequently to notice?) Chocolate plus licorice is a strange combination to me, but the Aussie pie reminds of what we'd call a pot pie in the US. Both were yummy :) Would ...

When we bought our house, there were plenty of things Mr. G and I didn't notice because we were inexperienced homebuyers. One of those things was how shallow our sink was:  Here it is in use . It's nearly 6 inches deep (about 14 centimeters). That's not terrible, but coupled with the low faucet, that left an 8 inch (20 cm) clearance for pots. Which is a huge problem for me because I love soup and make a big batch almost every weekend. Cleaning huge pots is already a chore, and fighting with the sink didn't help matters. (And just so you don't think I wanted a new sink just so I could easily clean a soup pot once a week:  It was also irritating to clean tons of other things - skillets, cake pans, serving trays - anything larger than a dinner plate basically.)  So I started plotting to get a new sink. And by plotting, I mean searching on craigslist (a website similar to the classified ads in the newspaper) for a deeper sink. Luckily it worked out and I found a ...

I bought new brown flats last month (they look black in this picture because I couldn't get my camera setting to cooperate). My old brown shoes had a crack in the sole that would allow water to seep in slowly, so that about a half hour after walking on a wet surface, my sock would start to feel damp. (And I'd be confused.) Eventually I figured it out and decided to only wear brown on dry days, haha. So when I saw these on clearance, I couldn't resist. They're comfortable and cute, plus I enjoy being able to wear my brown corduroys whenever it strikes my fancy ;) linking up for wordless Wednesday

Dar recently posted a photo of her weekly shopping trip  and Laura does the same every week. I think it's pretty interesting to see what others buy and how much they pay so I figured I'd share a shopping trip too.  Normally, I make 1-2 shopping trips per week. On the weeks I make two trips, it's one to the farmers' market and one to the grocery store (they're in opposite directions from my house, so I can't hit both in one drive). Our farmers' market sells the produce they grow behind the shop and food from local farmers when it's available. In January, most of the food is brought in from other parts of the country. But I still like to shop there to support a small business and products grown in North America. For $41.34, I bought . .  2 pounds of butter, $8.29 pound of organic ricotta cheese, $4.95 head of cauliflower, $3.99 unsweetened ketchup, $3.45 3/4 pound of shelled edamame, $2.89 onion, $.50 bell pepper, $.98 zucchini, $.91 ...

I just read a great post over at Economies of Kale . She went through all her clothing and tallied up exactly how much she has of each type (similar to this guy , but not as extreme). It has inspired me to do the same :) But first, here's some pictures of where I store my clothes. Almost all of my tops and sweaters are in this closet (the baskets up top are for sheets and out of season clothes): In the spare bedroom's closet, I hang all the clothes that are too tempting for my cats - anything with dangly bits or lace edging, and long dresses. I keep jeans, shorts, hoodies, and pajamas in my dresser drawers (my husband and I share a dresser); socks and underwear are kept in my nightstand.  On to the tallies: 73 Tops Tank tops: 9 Short sleeve shirts: 28 Long sleeve shirts: 13 (+1 jersey - I'll give you one guess as to  which team ) Sweaters: 17 (a popular Christmas gift) Hoodies: 5 34 Bottoms Jeans: 5 Capris: 2 Shorts: 5 (+1 skort that I should probably ...