StyleBurbia

Hello there! For those of you who celebrated Thanksgiving last week, I hope you had a lovely holiday.  One of my favorite people, my sister, made it out to spend the holiday with us and I was BEYOND happy.  I also overexerted myself by trying to cook a gazillion side dishes and a dessert.  I made a sweet potato casserole, creamed spinach, butternut squash soup, brussels sprouts, stuffing, cranberry sauce,  cranberry relish and chocolate dipped coconut macaroons.  I think that's it.... yes that's it. So needless to say, I am still EXHAUSTED and didn't use the time to rest up at all, but c'est la vie. Aunty Amby with her favorite guys    I originally thought that we would be hosting Thanksgiving at our house. Images of tablescapes danced in my head.     Table setting via Martha Stewart     Only thing, there were a few things working against us.   No dining room table or chairs. ...

New house, new job with a whole new commute, lots of change going on at the household of StyleBurbia.   Let's just say that it hasn't been easy. I started out this week ready to start my new job. Got to the burbia bus stop an hour and a half before I had to be at orientation. The bus I was planning on taking passed me by. I waited for another bus, that one passed me by too then nothing.... And nothing... Of course I started to panic. So to make a long, pain inducing story short, there were two things conspiring against me- 2 accidents at the Lincoln tunnel and the fact that trains in my town still weren't working because of hurricane Sandy and everyone was taking the bus. I was supposed to be at the office at 9:30 and didn't make it in until 11:15!!!!! What a way to start a new job. Unfortunately, I didn't figure out the issue with the trains until I waited for the bus again on Tuesday and a lovely man saw me waiting and told me there were 40 people do...

So goes day # 8 with no power. Luckily, my parents live in a neighboring town, so we are staying with them while the powers that be (pun intended) work on restoring our power due to the lovely Hurricane Sandy. More importantly, our family is safe and sound when others are MUCH less fortunate. Events like these should remind us how much we take for granted and what truly is important in our lives.  At least I got to spend some always needed quality time with the boys while our sitter was stranded in the city. UPDATE: As I was finishing up this post, our power was restored!!! Yeah!!!! Finally!!!!!!!!! Hope all of you are safe, warm and well lit. For those of you who still have no power, had your homes damaged or destroyed in the storm, I am thinking of you.   Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help. xo, Ris

Of course we move to the burbs just in time for a big storm. I'm just hoping our trees are as strong as they are beautiful. If you are on the East Coast, I hope you are staying safe, warm and dry  (of course I hope you are all of these things too wherever you are). Xo, Ris

  Finally!    We moved in last Saturday. It feels great. More unpacking to do. More projects to finish, but at least we are in.   We kept going back and forth on what to do in our powder room.     At first I was going to do a wall with tile like this:       this:      or this:         Let's just say that a small wall with one of those tiles would cost A LOT and though we were fine spending it on this space, our budget was shrinking by the minute.     So we went back to the lovely Aileen at Porcelanosa and came up with other options:     These two options were lovely, but didn't have a wow factor:       We pretty quickly decided on the floor that we liked. It was cool because we brought the floor tile and the tile that resembled our vanity and mixed and matched it with different wall t...

We sold our apartment in the end of June.  We've been staying with my mother-in-law since then while the last touches are going on at the house. Not sure what it is, but every morning I wake up with the puffiest eyes ever.  This has never happened to me before.  I'm not sure what's causing this. Maybe I'm allergic to her two kitties (though I had my own cat growing up and was fine)? Maybe not sleeping through the night for almost 19 months has taken its toll on my under eye area? (Note:  my little guy finally started sleeping through the night about a month ago- after almost 19 months. Hooray! We can get into a whole sleep training discussion, but will save that for another day.) Maybe I need to just admit I'm getting older and need to go to bed earlier (ummm.. don't like this option)? Whatever is causing my bags and dark circles, I usually don't wear makeup to the office (read- i'm too lazy) or much at all unless I'm going out, but I...