A Funny From A Friend

Since I have maintained a 50 lb. weight loss for the last 3 and 1/2 years, I haven't spent a whole lot of time or energy looking for new clothes.  It's easy to justify clothing purchases when things don't fit, but it's a bit trickier when you stay the same size.  Now, I have finally gotten to a place where it is truly necessary to buy some new stuff.  Even though I have wanted to lose just a touch more (maybe 5-10 lbs.) I really can't wait any longer to get some new clothing.  I have literally worn through most of my favorite things at this point.  Seriously, this stuff is no longer fit for public consumption!

So I took an old shopping buddy along with me to help me find at least some pants that would work better than the 'holey' and threadbare ones that I currently own.

"Shopping Ladies Walking", by Sattva

 found at: freedigitalphotos.net

I ended up leaving the store with a killer swimsuit instead.  (Ok, so guys reading this will be wondering how the heck this could happen while shopping for pants, while the ladies know exactly how this happened.)  The woman at the checkout even mentioned that the suit was her favorite one ever. 

So after hitting up a couple more stores and not finding any pants at all, I went home a little frustrated.  Even my old standby, the Goodwill, wasn't helping me out here.

Then I got a text from my shopping buddy that made me smile.  It read:  It's a sign.  A sign that YOU will be spending more time in the sun.  Pants?  Who needs pants?!  Not YOU!

The Palm Springs Condo

Back in November, my husband and I purchased a condo in Palm Springs, CA.  It was an exciting time of realizing a big dream for us and we worked really hard to make it our own.

The place was overall pretty awesome and the complex itself was the big draw for us to purchase this particular property.

After all, who could resist this?!

Now the inside of the condo.... well, that was a whole 'nother story.  It was overall in really good shape.  But part of the reason for the great condition of the place was that it was hardly ever used over the past 27 years.  So we called it our 80's time capsule.  And it was indeed a doozy...

First, there was the VERY pink carpet, which the pictures just do not do justice to- yes, I said PINK, the heavy drapes, the lovely pink and blue furniture, the over use of ugly fake plants and the overall 'brass and glass' feel to the place...

Then, of course, who could forget the floral bedspreads and raspberry pink towels to match- all folded like fans and everything?!

It was truly a sight to behold!   And a mess to be dealt with immediately!

First things first, we completely emptied out the place and had the carpets dyed brown.  Yes, you can do that!  And with carpet that had hardly any wear and tear, it was the perfect choice.

Next we moved on to finding all different living/ dining area furniture.  This consisted of finding some used, some IKEA and some stuff at the local furniture dealers.  Remember that we were working with this being Thanksgiving week and had only two weeks to get what we could get done before we wanted to be able to use the place and have friends be able to use it for the season!  It was a crazy time!  The local thrift stores were amazed at how many times we showed up to donate and we did manage to sell some stuff on Craigslist as well.  I also installed new kitchen flooring as I just could not live with the pinkish stuff that was there. 

We did keep the bedroom furniture as we ran out of cash to do anything about that and with new linens and such it was not so bad after all.  I also figured out that even though the place was hardly ever used, it sure would have been nice if the people had bothered to clean it up once in a while.  Let's just say that all the hard water build up, dust and crud gave me 2 weeks worth of full body workouts that would rival any gym.

Now our place is still a work in progress, but it is so much nicer!

Today, it looks like this:

And right now some friends of ours are there using our Palm Springs condo.  We are thrilled to be able to share it with them.  The email they sent was so full of their obvious enjoyment and it made us so happy and proud and I have to admit- just a wee bit jealous!  Sometime we will join them there when we can all go together at the same time and maybe try to learn to golf!  We just can't wait until we go back to Palm Springs at the end of March!