I'd Like to Thank the Academy..

My warm welcome to the blogosphere continued today with an unexpected (and much appreciated!) surprise.  The lovely Mary Sullivan Frasier of Go Ahead...Take a Bite! has bestowed upon me The Versatile Blogger Award.  

How cool is that?  

(If you haven't read Mary's blog, go on over and check it out.  I'll wait.  You might want to start with the post about the chocolate chip cookie/brownie bars.)  (You're welcome.)

So once you receive the award, you need to do the following:

1. Add the award to your blog.  
2. Thank the blogger who gave it to you.
3. Mention seven random things about yourself. (see below)
4. List the rules.
5. Award to 15 bloggers.
6. Inform each of those 15 by leaving a comment on their blog.

Since I've already added the award and thanked Miss Mary (what the heck, Mary deserves to be thanked twice: Thanks, Mary!)  now I need to list my seven random things:

1. I'm almost ten years younger than my sister but only eleven months older than my brother.  That reminds me that I should do something nice for my mom...  like every day.  
2. My great-grandparents were swept away by a tsunami after a Mediterranean earthquake in 1908.  My great-grandmother survived because her floor-length hair got caught in a tree.  My great-great aunt was taken in by the Pope after that same earthquake.  She lived in Vatican City for six years.
3. I didn't drive on the freeway for several years after getting my license.  Merging seemed unnatural and wrong.  (Plus mighty dangerous.)  My brother finally got fed up and made me do it.  Thanks, Bro.
4. When my parents were married, they owned, collectively, something like 10,000 books.  They covered virtually every wall in the common living space. 
5. When I was young I hated my name.  Spencer Gifts never had stickers or tiny license plates or lunch bags with the name "Elena" on them.  I'm over that now.
6. Hot peppers give me the hiccups.  The reaction is immediate and makes an excellent party trick.  (This will not, however, stop me from making--and eating--the rockin' Guacamole recipe that Mary has on her site.)
7. I was Really Rosie in our fourth grade performance of "Really Rosie."  My life has all been downhill since then.

Okay, so that should about do it for my seven random facts.  Now for the fun (but difficult) part: bestowing the award on other bloggers.  Is it lame if I wait until my next post to do that?  It's the perfect excuse to spend my evening curled up with a bunch of good blogs...

Getting Acquainted: Where Are You From?

So, up until yesterday, there were about five people who read this blog.   Now there are, well... more.  (That's assuming they come back ;)  So I thought it might be nice to introduce myself so that people have some context for the stories I tell.  This will take more than one post so I thought I'd start with where I'm from since that can tell you a lot about a person.

One of the first things I should say is that in 43 years I've moved 17 times.  (And to answer the inevitable next question, no, my dad was not in the military.)  So whenever people ask me where I'm "from," I'm always at a loss for words.  I was born in Brooklyn, NY and although I left the area as an infant, there is a lot about NYC that informs who I am.  My parents were both Brooklyn born and bred and pretty much my entire extended family lived in NYC or Long Island.  I spent a lot of time there growing up so although it's ridiculous to say that I'm "from" New York, sometimes it feels like I am.

We left NY to go to DC.  (Actually Reston, VA)  We were there for about eight or nine years, until I was ten-years-old.  When I think of my true childhood--that idyllic time before adolescence--I think of Reston.  Given what an important time of life that is, I feel entitled to say that I'm "from" Reston (even if I haven't been there in almost three decades ;)

From Reston we went to Syracuse, NY.  It was a short stay--only four years--but they were such! important! years!  (middle school through my first year of high school)  My memories of Syracuse are so strong and the friendships I made there so lasting, that I feel completely comfortable saying it's where I'm from (and do so whenever I meet someone from Central New York).

We left Syracuse for Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (And if you think that was traumatic for me three days before my sophomore year of high school, you'd be correct.)  Little did I know that I'd fall in love with Wisconsin and stay in Milwaukee all the way through college (and even a little beyond).  In fact, I ended up marrying a boy from my high school and long after my parents left the area, his remained.  As a result, we were regular visitors to Milwaukee until three years ago when they finally sold the family home and retired to Mexico.  So am I from Milwaukee?  You betcha! (<-- My Milwaukee friends will understand that reference.)

From Milwaukee it was back to NYC but I was only there for about nine months.  I was a live-in nanny on the Upper West Side and to be honest, I was miserable.  I should probably write an entirely separate post about that, but for the purpose of this post, that was not a particularly important time of my life.

I left Manhattan to chase after that boy I mentioned earlier.  (I caught him btw, and we've been together for almost 20 years.)  He was living in Madison, WI at the time.  I lived there for one summer but seeing as that summer marked the beginning of a pretty magical relationship, Madison will always hold a special place in my heart.

After Madison I went to Chicago.  Rather, I should say that I followed the boy to Chicago.  I had been there maybe once before and knew nothing about it.  I had no job, no place to live, and no clue.  So imagine my surprise when fourteen years later I was still there.  It feels both natural and weird to say that I'm "from" Chicago.  On the one hand, it's the place I've lived the longest.  On the other hand, I didn't get there until I was an adult and being "from" somewhere implies that it's where you originated.  Do you see why this question throws me off?

(I should mentioned that I was not in Chicago for the entire 14 years.  After my husband graduated from law school he did a clerkship with a judge in Ft. Lauderdale.  We were there for two years and I LOVED it.  But even without those two years, Chicago is still the place I lived the longest.)

As much as I loved and will always identify with Chicago, the last few years there were hard.  I suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder and the seven months of winter became progressively more difficult for me (especially after having had a taste of South Florida).  For that reason (and a number of others) we decided to relocate to San Diego.  We've been here for six years now and I absolutely love it!  In seven more years we'll have been here longer than we were in Chicago.  At that point I intend to tell people that it's where I'm from.  (And with any luck it will be where I remain!)

So, where are you from?

'Tween Room

My eleven-year-old daughter just upgraded from a twin bed to a full and overnight her bedroom went from Pottery Barn Kids to Pottery Barn T(w)een.  (But without the Pottery Barn price.)

I'm kicking myself for not taking a before shot.  I need to start thinking like a blogger.

Things aren't as pink as they appear in this Instagram photo.  (The bed and the furniture are actually white.)

She loves it and so do I.

Overwhelmed (but in a good way)

So the other day I was perusing my RSS feed when I came across this post on Cheap Chic Home, a blog I'd been following for awhile.  As a new blogger I thought I should check it out.  Little did I know what was about to occur.  Shortly after I made my comment, the blogger (Kim), graciously wrote back and checked out my blog.  We went back and forth for awhile and as a result of her suggestions (or maybe it was from looking at her blog) I took a chance and joined something called Linky Followers, a site that connects bloggers.

I can explain the experience like this:  imagine going to a party full of really cool and interesting strangers.  Now imagine that--as soon as you enter--everyone at the party stops what they're doing, welcomes you warmly and compliments your shoes.  :)  That's what joining Linky Followers has been like for me.

So to all the new people who have begun following 'A Casarella, thank you!  I am overwhelmed by your kindness and look forward to reading every one of your blogs.  If somehow I miss you (and I am terrified that I'm going to overlook someone), please forgive me (and don't hesitate to give me a little nudge ;).

Linky Followers

So I'm experimenting with this Linky-thingy.  (See the Linky Followers icon on the sidebar.)

Unless you have a blog it will probably be of no interest to you.

I'll be back to my regularly scheduled programming tomorrow.

Serious Girl Crush

Have you seen this video of Kristen Bell on The Ellen DeGeneres Show?

I had only watched Ellen once or twice before this and knew next to nothing about Bell.

Now I want to be her best friend and have sleepovers where we paint each other nails.

And if that were actually to happen, I would be at waay more than an eleven.

Hanging Around

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Consider this a public service announcement from me.

If you despise the act of picture hanging as much as I do, fear not!  I am here to recommend two products which have changed my world.  Okay, maybe not my whole world.  Just the little-bitty part that revolves around picture-hanging.  (I told you this wouldn't be a blog about changing the world!)

Seriously, though, picture hanging can be a real drag.

That's why I love these!  they're called "Monkey Hooks" and they're a freaking miracle.

I first found them in the impulse buy section at Marshall's.  You know what I'm talking about: the retail maze you snake through while you're waiting in line to pay.  As someone who hates to hang pictures I was intrigued so I threw them in my cart.  Good. Move. Elena.  No hammer, no nails, no drills and no drywall hangers.  All you do is twist the pointy end until it pokes through the wall.  Slide it in, flip it around and voila!  A perfectly serviceable hook!  And if you accidentally put it in the wrong place, all you have to do it pull it out.  What's left is a pinprick of a hole in the wall.  I currently have a 25+ lb mirror hanging from two of these babies.  I hung it there over a year ago with no problems whatsoever.  (So far... maybe I should knock on wood?)  

But let's say you don't even want a pinprick in the wall.  Maybe you're in a rental?  Well  I also love these guys:

There are links at the bottom of the page if you'd like to try either one of these products.

I use them for smaller, lighter pictures and they work like a charm.  I should really devote a whole post to my love of Command Products.  My kids love to tease me about it.  (Of course they don't complain when I hang their posters with the Command Poster Strips.  But more about that in another post.)