hlg22's Profile

I totally agree with ECANDLE96. I never had problems making friends or having an active social life...but now that I am 35 and single while virtually all of my friends are married with kids, it is a whole lot harder, especially as an introvert. About 1/2 of my friends went completely AWOL when they had kids. Many of the others will only socialize if their children are included - they don't "believe in" babysitters and some of them don't even trust their husbands to be alone with the kids (seriously). Luckily my two best friends are great and I love their families, but even so it would be nice to make other single friends.

The people who seem to assume that you can just snap your fingers and make friends if you really want to crack me up...I do try to take classes in things I'm interested in (photography, cooking, pilates, yoga), but I work long hours and most of the "after work" classes seem to start at 5:30-6, which is not doable. My colleagues are nice, but all have families and are looking to get straight home to them after work rather than socializing. Neighbors...my former neighbor did become a friend but now although I am friendly with my current neighbors, they are all either elderly or have young families, so while we do chat occasionally, they've got their own things going on. I'm in a book club but our meetings become very infrequent after members started having kids.

It would be nice to be an extrovert who could just walk into a party or bar not knowing anyone and make 10 friends by the time I left, but that's just not me. Trust me, I have tried, and it just makes me awkward and miserable.

"Why not go directly to the channels you are interested in?"

Because I'm interested in ALL the other channels - style, diy, etc. - they all relate to homes and design, which is what this site is (or used to be) about. It makes zero sense to me to throw a mommy blog into that mix.

Love it! I just bought one. I struggle with this at the farmers' market every week - trying the shift things around in the bag to make room for new purchases while simultaneously trying to shove change back in my wallet and get out of the way of the long line behind me...invariably something gets smooshed at the bottom, usually berries or a small bunch of herbs. Or ::ahem:: my apple cider donut from the donut lady. This looks like it will be perfect!

Both my cleaning lady and my lawn service come today - every other Friday, coming home to both a neat yard and a spotless house is heaven!

Hiring a cleaning lady was probably the best thing I have done in a while. For a long time I thought it was silly, since I live by myself and am fully capable of cleaning...but I work long hours during the week and would find myself spending most of the weekend getting the house in shape, or just letting it go when I was busy. I do much more spur of the moment entertaining now, since the house is pretty much always clean enough to be presentable.

Different things are important to different people - I don't think it's necessarily a matter of getting married or having kids. I am a homebody, and having a "grown up house" was always important to me - I hated living in tiny apartments, sharing walls, not having a place that was "mine," not having space for guests, etc. The second I graduated from school and got a good job I bought my first house and started getting rid of my futons and IKEA pieces and started collecting things that I really loved. Ever since, I've probably had the most "grown up" house of any of my friends - I bought my current home about two years ago and am still in the process of decorating and remodeling it - and it's definitely not boring! I have done everything I can to make it a comfortable and friendly place for friends and family to come visit or stay...I have real dishes and glasses for parties, a guest room with a nice mattress and sheets, and I have a go-to handyman, plumber, electrician, contractor, etc. to keep things running smoothly. And I'm the one who's handing down furniture to some of my married-with-kids friends.

On the flip side, I have a friend who lived in a $1 million house for about 8 years, and never even furnished about half of the rooms. She lined up pictures to be hung when she moved in and unpacked, and they were still leaning against the wall and waiting to be packed up again when she moved out. She would stick an aerobed in an empty room when someone came to stay. So I don't think it's a matter of money - she could easily have afforded to pay someone to hang pictures, decorate, etc., but it just wasn't a priority for her.

Absolutely gorgeous. I love the slanted top cabinets - such a smart way to squeeze in storage for items that aren't used very often.

Um, it's not really all that rare - it's not like they're making counters out of dinosaur bones. When I went to Petrified Forest NP in Arizona as a kid, the National Park Service itself was selling hunks of it off as souvenirs. It looks like what they're doing here is slicing off very thin slices of a petrified wood trunk and suspending it in something to make the counters - which means you're not even using all that much wood.

With respect to the aesthetics, it's not my style but it is interesting, and I could see how it would look lovely in the right kitchen.

I find comments like hunter606's very sad. Do people who won't eat alone really hate themselves so much that they find the idea of a 1/2 hour with only themselves for company so unbearable? If I'm eating alone, I may have a book open or be in front of the TV, but there's always real food on my plate - I think I'm worth more than ramen noodles or cold pizza. Tonight, for instance, I'll be eating by myself after work and the gym and have chicken marinating in a garlic/mustard/smoked paprika glaze that I'll grill along with some farmers' market asparagus.

I've been on pinterest since last fall and have noticed a huge increase in spam within the last few weeks. For example, I was searching "Easter dessert," and the picture of the same few desserts would come up, but the text would be something like "I enjoyed this cake. I also enjoy this new pinterest-sponsored weight loss product [link]...." Super annoying.

cbreynolds and ladyepanda, I agree...I always serve a vegetarian option but that's as far as it goes. I cook from scratch and just don't have time to make 6 different nut-free, gluten-free, lactose-free, vegan, etc., etc. options, nor am I comfortable guaranteeing that there is no nut cross-contamination in my kitchen for someone with a deadly allergy, or that I've read labels carefully enough to suss out hidden gluten. If you'd like to come and bring your own food that's great, but at my Christmas party I invited a family that I did not even know was gluten-free, and all the did was stand around and complain about how there was nothing they could eat. I am planning another party in a few weeks, and they're off the guest list.