Ch...ch...changes

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Labels: , , , · Posted by Kara at
Remember when I posted a while back about rearranging our furniture and running out of space on our bookshelves?   Well, ladies and gentlemen, I offer you photographic proof.

This first photo was taken last summer, just after we had moved in to our little APT.  You can tell how early it was taken because #1 there are no curtains on the windows, #2 our bookshelves are basically empty, and #3 it all just looks bare and new.

This next photo was snapped in February as I was making pennant banners for Valentine's Day and my big sister's baby shower.  At this point the bookshelves had basically been stuffed to capacity, and RyGuy had started to use the windowsill next to his desk as an additional place to pile up books.  I also like this photo better than the first, because it makes our APT seem cozy and lived in.
Fast forward to July...and you'll see we've made some big changes to the space. 
First of all, you can see that we overflowed the bookcases and are now using the top shelf (above the actual bookcases) to store our books.  We've also got a great collage frame up there that my sister and her hubs-to-be gave us, full of pictures from our trip to China last year.

That little chair on the left is the Tullsta from Ikea, and I snagged it and its brother on Craigslist for a jaw-dropping 50 buckaroos (they normally retail for $99 each).  It's a little worn down, but that's an easy fix with a slipcover from Ikea for only $30...if we could only decide on a color (I'm thinking red).

We were trying to fit in some more seating since all we had before was our couch that could only fit 3 people comfortably.  In order to do that, we had to reconfigure the desks that we had previously placed side-by-side in front of the bookcases.  Now they're in an "L" shape, with the longer desk against the window, and the shorter desk against the bookcases.  As a result of the great reconfiguration we lost one of the desk spots (we used to have one for each of us - I was on the left, and RyGuy was on the right of the TV).  Fortunately, Ryan likes to do his work at the counter when he's home so I got to take over the desk by the window.

Since we could only fit in one of the chairs, the other one had to go into storage (aka Mom and Dad's attic).  For the most part, though, we're very happy with our new setup and it's been working well for us.  Now we can have two whole guests over at one time!  Partyyyyyyy!

Happy July!

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Labels: , , , · Posted by Kara at
July is my favorite month of the whole year.  The weather is beautiful, the days are long, and it has one of the best holidays of all time to start it off.  We spent this past weekend in Philly, soaking up the never-ending celebrations marking the birth of our fantabulous nation.  There were barbecues, free concerts, ice cream festivals, and fireworks galore.  (On a side note - I just found out that barbecue is spelled with a c and not a q.  However, barbeque IS listed in the dictionary as "a common misspelling of barbecue." Whoops.)

Our first barbeCue was on Saturday, and we decided to whip up some yummy treats to bring along.  We made a colorful pasta salad with asparagus, cherry tomatoes, feta, and orzo (sort of like this recipe we shared a while back), and double chocolate pomegranate cookies that were so easy and so delicious.  You can click on the links to see the recipes we used.
On Sunday we slept in and were generally lazy.  It was a much-needed break, considering we had been travelling every weekend since May.  When we finally managed to get ourselves together (at about 5pm) we decided to walk down to Old City and get dinner at Amada.

OMG.

It was hands-down the best restaurant we've ever been to.  And we've been to a lot of restaurants.  We like Spanish tapas to begin with, but Amada took tapas to a whole new level.  I bow down to you, Jose Garces.  We pretty much spent the rest of the night reminiscing about the food we had just had, and debating whether or not we should go back for brunch the next day.  Oh, and we also went to the free Philly Pops concert on Independence Mall.  For those of you who aren't aware - I love pops orchestras.  No, I mean seriously LOVE.  Needless to say, Sunday was an awesome day.

On Monday we trekked all the way down to Penn's Landing for an all-you-can-eat ice cream festival benefitting the Joshua Kahan Fund for Pediatric Leukemia.  You pay $7, they give you a spoon, and the ice cream binge commences.   
(That was my seventh ice cream...and it wasn't my last.)

The main event Monday was the big concert at the Art Museum featuring The Roots, Sara Bareilles (yay!) and Earth Wind and Fire.  Boyz II Men even showed up.  Unfortunately, free concert + awesome performers + national holiday = an overwhelming number of people everywhere.  By the time we finally managed to find a place to sit by some of my nursing buddies we couldn't even see the stage.  We stayed long enough to hear The Roots and my girl Sara do their thang, then we hightailed it out of there to find a better place to watch the fireworks.

Luckily, we snagged a prime spot for the fireworks along the trail in Schuylkill River Park, where we were away from the massive crowds at the Art Museum but still close enough to see all the action.  These were my favorite:

We could have used a couple more days off to recuperate, but it was back to the grindstone Tuesday morning.  Luckily, we can look back at these pictures and remember how great our fourth of July was.

Speaking of looking back, I have to share this ADORABLE picture from a long past fourth of July.  This is my RyGuy with his mommy.


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