The lobsters have arrived. That's what Alex told me earlier today. Actually he said something along the lines of, "Come home and eat all your lobsters!" If he only knew. See, DH and I are taking a BIG step and are trying Nutrisystem. So unlike us. So crazy. But necessary. Our lives are too busy and our waist lines keep growing, significantly, so we are going to try this. Both of us, at the same time. The boys, although happy about us trying this and supportive, are worried they will never eat again. When first told what we were going to do Alex made the comment about how they were going to get nothing while we ate nothing but lobsters all the time. LOL! Today, dh's box came but mine has yet to arrive. I peeled open his box and started reading all the food. What was obvious was the portion sizes. DH couldn't wait and tried a bag of honey pretzels. LOL. I had to remind him that we have a lot to learn about portion sizes. A LOT TO LEARN obviously by the size of these portions. But, we (I'm) open minded about this whole new direction. I did have to make the disclaimer that if he ate all of his 28 days of food in 15 days that he was going to starve for the remaining 13 days. And I'm serious about that! We have nothing to lose but weight so we are going for it. I'll post pictures of the boxes soon. Keep your fingers crossed that we become healthy and small!

My bad. Been busy - doing a little bit (or rather a lot of bit) of everything. Going in many different directions at one time and starting to wish this wasn't the case. Doing too many things, means I'm not a master of any! Got to change that!

Getting ready to take a short trip to Chicago for a work conference. Wasn't too excited to go. I've been to Chicago a bunch of times and I'd rather stay home and work some unfinished design projects, like our master bedroom. I'm stuck because I'm trying to find a unique duvet cover so I can finalize my color pallet, but that is easier said then done. I really, really like the bedding shown in the movie P.S. I Love You. (Ignore Hillary Swank in her bra - really just look at the bedding!). Unfortunately I have discovered this bedding was a prior years collection of John Robshaw Textiles and is no longer available. Bad news. As a side note, check out what's on the wall behind her bed. Isn't that cool?! Reminds me of some of Jennifer Bertrand's art on the walls used in some of her designs. I'm loving swirls, in home design and scrapbooking. I'm pretty sure something like this will show up in our master bedroom somewhere. I might have to take out some fabric paint and make my own duvet with these swirls. Hmmmm, that could be interesting!

I also want to finish our kitchen cabinets. Remember they've been painted but I need to finish the top with a build up of crown moulding and then over/under cabinet lighting. Once this is done I can move onto tiling the backsplash. I've resolved I'm not going to be getting a double oven anytime soon so I need to just finish it with the current design. The problem, I can't find the one piece of moulding I need. Here is a picture:

This is a piece I picked up about four years ago at Lowes and of course they no longer carry it. It was just an average in-stock piece! They have apparently changed their distributors (last year) and no one can tell me who carried this piece. I want to use this on the bottom of our cabinets and at the top, upside down. I would then build up the top to add crown moulding (either regular or cove moulding) at the very tip top. I have already spent significant time trying to track down this piece and no such luck, visiting local woodworking companies, other home improvement stores, numerous websites. My next step is to call Lowes headquarters to see if they can provide me any direction what so ever but I'm not holding out much luck. Any suggestions?

I'd also like to design and build a couple pieces for our outdoor living area. I want an island for cooking and a buffet table to put food and utensils on. I have ideas in my head, just need to go gather some of the pieces from a local architectural salvage store and start building.

So, with all of these design things swirling around in my head, I see the time we are going out of town as a great opportunity for uninterrupted design work at home. But, I have to be a good spouse and go on this trip, reluctantly. But then this morning I realized that our hotel is located not too far from the Chicago Merchandise Mart. Be still my foolish heart, a design meca right around the corner. I've always wanted to go there and in looking at our iteniary I should have some significant time to peruse it. And, I should be able to get into the designer only areas. This trip might not be so bad afterall!