That Time We Signed a Lease

...........whew.

We are coming off a serious real estate whirlwind over here (in the best way possible).

SK and I both had Monday off of work, so we decided it would be the perfect time to start our apartment search. Neither of our leases are up until April, so this was really more of a fact-finding mission. Testing the waters. Dipping a toe in the water, so to speak.

(You all know where this is going, right?)

After an unsuccessful afternoon of searching, including some apartments that were outrageously out of our price range and one that could charitably be described as a construction site, we were beginning to feel despairingly about our search for the perfect Logan Circle apartment.

(To note, I'm the one that is picky about location, not SK.Guilty)

We were about to head in from the cold and call it a day when we remembered one last place that we'd looked at. In fact, we'd laughed about it, because they had already sent us a quote without us ever setting foot in the place.

We walked in without an appointment and met with the leasing staff, who informed us that the quote they'd sent us was actually a President's Day special and they couldn't hold it at that price until April. This is where I started thinking unkind thoughts about their staff in my head. Why would you send us a quote that wasn't applicable? They wanted us to sign a lease to move in immediately - a completely laughable idea.

Even after they showed us the apartment, I knew it would be out of our price range. I tried very hard not to fall in love with the closets (which are quite loveable.)

After our tour we sat down with the leasing agent, who asked us if there was anything she could do to get us to move in sooner. Almost simultaneously, SK and I said, "I don't know. Is there?"

Suffice to say......

Yes. Yes, there was quite a bit she could do for us.

I won't get into the details, but our leasing agent (who is actually quite lovely and I felt bad for thinking mean things about her at first) made the deal EXTREMELY worth our while.

So that's how we found ourselves signing a lease to a new apartment on Tuesday afternoon, less than 24 hours after 'dipping our toes in the water.'

After signing there was a lot of "Holy crap did we really just do that??" and "Oh my God now we have three apartments" (in the true spirit of American excess) and "How did we become people who have a rule about shoes in the apartment?" (It's white carpet!)

So.....yeah! I'll post more about decor and moving and all that good stuff, but for now....

Holy crap. We signed a lease.

Yeah!

Giveaway Winner ANNOUNCED!

Happy cold, rainy Monday, folks. On days like these, it's always fun to spread a little cheer...which is why I'm pleased to announce the winner of my inaugural giveaway is LEANNA, from OMG I'm Back in DC!

Leanna, email me at littlebindc1@gmail.com to let me know where to send your prizes. To everyone who participated, thank you so much - I loved hearing from all of you and celebrating 100 posts. Thank you for reading and being my blog friends!

Friday's Fancies: Rainy Spring Day

Shameless plug - Today is the LAST day to enter my giveaway! Sephora, itunes, and state pride await you!
Join HERE!

I know it's only February, and it's cliche to say I'm ready for spring, but here I am, doing it anyway.

I. hate. winter.

A tourist from Florida was behind me on the Metro escalator last weekend and started screaming with excitement when it started to snow. I almost felt bad for the look I gave her. Almost. But then I remembered she never had to clean a car out of a three foot blizzard. Snow makes me a bitter, bitter b.

So today for Friday's Fancies I decided that I would layer it up for a rainy spring day! A trench is always a classic, and bright rain accessories make a rainy day a little bit cheerier.

I'd layer the bright cardigan over the muted colored top, and dress it up with some simple gold accessories. I included flats because I'd wear them around the office, but added nude shoes in case this outfit traveled to a happy hour after work.

Happy Friday, everyone. Hope its fancy!

Emmylou

I heard this song on last night's Nashville and have had it on non-stop today. Not to be overly poetic, but there's something so beautiful about it I almost want to cry. This is what I love best about music.

What I'm Loving Wednesday - DryBar Edition

First things first - there are only two days left to enter my giveaway. What are you waiting for? A Sephora card, an iTunes gift card, and a totally sweet cookie cutter could be yours. Get on it!

Secondly, I'm linking up with What I'm Loving Wednesday today to tell you all about my trip to DryBar last weekend -- or as I'm calling it, DryMiracle.

Styling my hair has been a struggle for my entire life. You've seen my cowlick, and you've seen what my hair looked like as a kid, but you guys have no idea. When I was younger, my parents would tell me that I was the girl with the little curl right in the middle of her forehead. The problem was that it wasn't just in the middle of my forehead - it was everywhere. (One of my most treasured possessions is a t-shirt my mom gave me in elementary school that reads "How can I control my life if I can't control my hair?!?!")


My hair texture could charitably be described as wavy. It's not curly: whenever I try to let it dry with some gel or mousse, it can't be coaxed into spirals. If I let it air dry, it becomes what I lovingly refer to as my 'Jew-lioness mane'. (When I was in Israel, I hoped that my hair would respond to the desert climate since it was 'the motherland.' It did not, probably because I am Eastern European and in no way Middle Eastern.) The routine I've settled into usually involves an updo of some kind, or a good long while with my straightening/curling iron.

Every six months or so, I decide that it's time for me to learn how to blow out my hair properly. It always goes the same way -- I watch a million YouTube tutorials, I follow my hairdresser's every move, I buy a bunch of products, I tell myself that I'm 28 and this is a normal life skill, I spend upwards of 30 minutes trying to blow my hair straight...and I wind up looking something like this.

So when Drybar opened up in DC, I was pretty pumped.To say the least.

I decided to make my inaugural visit to DryBar on Saturday, before SK took me out for my birthday dinner. (I went to the Bethesda location, for curious DC readers. Georgetown was booked up a week out!)

I can tell it's going to be dangerous for my bank account to have a DryBar in the DMV area. Everything about the service there was impeccable. To start, I asked my stylist if she could do "whatever Kate Middleton does." When she told me that was no problem, I knew I was going to have a good time.

Voila!

Plus, I got to watch the end of Clueless while they took care of me. Amazing.

Here's the best part (to a marketing nerd like myself, at least): When I checked out, it was snowing, so they gave me a free umbrella with their logo on it. GENIUS. My hair lasted the walk to the metro -- not to mention for days after that!

Have any of you been to DryBar? Can you blow out your own hair? Will you teach me how?

Menu Monday: What the Heck am I Going to Do With These Superbowl Leftovers?

Kicking things off with a bit of shameless self-promotion: have you entered my giveaway yet?

Now, onto the food!

Since I didn't do too much cooking this week, I thought it might be fun to talk about my Superbowl snacks and see if any of you have ideas for what to do with the leftovers. I'm pretty stumped!

Carnitas: As I mentioned last week, my Superbowl entree was carnitas, courtesy of Smitten Kitchen. Now, I'm not sure what exactly happened - I worry that I bought the wrong kind of meat? - but mine came out less carnitas-y and more pulled-pork-y.

Looks like tuna. Tastes like Carnitas.

Since the meat doesn't have an overwhelming Mexican flavor, I'm envisioning the leftovers in some sort of Asian-inspired peanut sauce/noodle concoction. Anyone have a favorite recipe for me to try?!

Tortillas: Due to some guest-related RSVP issues, we wound up with a few more tortillas we needed. Like.......3 packages more than we needed. Quesadillas are the obvious choice here (as I've professed my love for their cheesy goodness on more than one occasion), but if someone has another idea I'd love to hear it! I think quesadillas will only get us through one package.

Slaw: This one is the real stumper. I made Pioneer Woman's Cilantro-Jalapeno slaw to go alongside the pork, and I'm pretty sure that was its only purpose in life. Is there any way to re-purpose slaw?

For those of you in DC, don't forget that it's Restaurant Week! I've got reservations at Rasika and I just. can't. wait.

I'll let you all know how the great leftover experiment ends next week!

Hitting the Slopes....or the Lodge, as it were.

For the past couple of years, SK and I have gone out of town over New Year's to go skiing with some friends.

The first time we did this, I was pretty confident about my skiing abilities. When I was younger, my family  used to go skiing several times a year in upstate New York. Although I hadn't been on a pair of skis since age 11, I was sure that the sport would come back to me. Just like riding a bike.

I was so confident, in fact, that I didn't bring snow pants. And when my friend Lauren asked me what would happen when I fell, I told her, "I just won't fall."

Yep.

I fell.

I fell a lot.

(Thankfully Lauren predicted this scenario and loaned me her bibbies.)

At one point, snow patrol came over to check on my progress, because I was laying in a patch of dirt (it had barely snowed that year), bellowing at SK to help me up and for God's sake STOP LAUGHING, since he was laughing so hard he couldn't breathe.

(Side note: The "French Fries! Pizza slice!" method of skiing is really only useful for child skiers.)

This is a long-winded way of telling you that I don't have a ski outfit picked out for today's Friday's Fancies. I do have a fetching hot cocoa and knitting in the lodge option all set to go, though!

From top left:

a) A bright coat -- if I do venture out, I don't want to get lost in a drift.

b) pearls (standard);

c) iPhone touch gloves -- a birthday gift from SK last year, and one of the most useful items I have ever received.

d) Cozy plaid flannel shirt and leggings.

e) a charming chapeau.

f) boots -- I don't care about the cute factor of my boots. As someone who went to college in upstate New York and then lived in New Hampshire, I quickly learned that functionality outweighs fashion -- and I HATE wet feet.

g) As long as I'm cozy in the lodge, I may as well have a manicure party!

Happy Friday, everyone - and don't forget to sign up for the giveaway!