2 Cats and Chloe

Healthy Food, Great Views and Creative Living!

A Susan-Sized-Ikea-Trip

by

The day started like any other… An awkward job “meet and greet,” traffic in Northern Virginia, and ikea.  And let me tell you, ikea was not ready for us.  Or so we thought.  We came prepared and on a mission.  We showed ikea who the bosses were.  
And then ikea kicked my credit card in the boo-tay.  

Welcome to my kitchen!  How many I assist you?!  

Is anyone else overly impressed by the teeny tiny, yet totally awesome kitchens, bedrooms, closets, offices and overall sweet spaces that is somehow created in this magical square castle called ikea?  Pretty positive I could use the kitchen below to start my own paleo cooking show!

Like I said, we went with a mission.  A mission to make my kitchen at my new home nicer and user-friendly.  Well, I guess not so much friendly.  More so just useable.

The bottom line:  I need more counter space.  And this Swedish hunk of furniture is my solution.  The cute bar chairs and all!

As we wrapped up the part of the store tour that a human could easily live in, my mom was a bit flabbergasted that we were almost done.  I mean really Mother, we were only there for about 2.5 hours!

It took the two of us, a flatbed cart, some logistical planning and the weight of my entire body for us to pick this butcher block thing up.  Heavy duty doesn’t even begin to describe it.

And then I had to reorganize my goods and begin pushing like a lady about to give birth to 123 pounds of ikea furniture.  It took everything in me to get this flatbed to the checkout without:

  • A.  Letting my super sweet lanterns (that Michael will also love - compromise decor is tough for us) fall off the cart and break  
  • B.  Run it into a giant rack of other ikea-loveliness or
  • C.  Take out the snarky lady that yelled at my mom when my mom simply tried to help her. 
 Scratch that, I totally meant to hit Mrs. Snarky McSnarkerson. 

When we left HRVA we were both slightly concerned about taking Pretty Prius.  My mom swore up and down that there was no way I could fit a Susan-Size-Ikea-Trip into my tiny, but efficient Pretty Prius.  She definitely had junk in her trunk, but Pretty Prius pulled through for me!  We probably could’ve even fit the shoe cabinet I really wanted in there also!

I’m officially convinced that my Prius is the second cousin, twice removed, to Mary Poppins’ bag.

We made it home!  Now it’s time to start building!  And time to start making my next Ikea Road Trip Shopping List.  Hint hint:  This headboard is at the top of the list!  (And no, it’s not $999! I swear!  At that cost I’d be going to Pottery Barn and swooping up the bed frame I REALLY want.)

To those of you who live near an ikea… do you have problems with this store?  Is there an ikea-obsessed-anonynmous group you can check yourself into?!  Thankfully I live a solid two point five hours away from this glorious motherland of swedish bargain furniture.  Otherwise we’d have serious issues.  My obsession with Target wouldn’t even begin to compare to the problems we’d have if ikea were in my town.   
They say God doesn’t put things in front of you that he knows you cannot handle… because Jesus knows I do not have the will power to handle an ikea that is any closer than 143 miles of my home.
   (Yep, I google mapped it.)  


Signs of Summer…

by

I hope you all had a lovely Fourth of July!  I also hope that you are as lucky as I am and that you will be enjoying a Four-ish Day Weekend!  The sun has finally come out and I am finally enjoying my vacation on the river without the help of the Lifetime Movie Network.

I want to keep this short and sweet, as I have more of a lather-up-in-tanning-lotion-priority than I do a be-a-blogging-rockstar priority.  Sorry friends.  I love you, but sunshine on my shoulder really does make me quite happy.

So here’s some images from yesterday’s celebrations.  

American Flag and the Pirate Flag… Pretty much sums us up!

Floating, Laughing, Drinking.  Happiness.

My sister and mom.

It’s all fun and games until someone falls into the river…

My mom’s dog, Lacey.  Too cool for school.

Yes, my bike has streamers.  Pink ones.

Brown Dog’s Bathtime.

Someone had enough to drink…

Fireworks across the river.

#Survivor, Rudy, and my Video Buff.

by

Ever notice how life can totally seem like the hyped up, “realty” some folks call a game show, known as Survivor.  Let’s hashtag that for you hipsters.  #Survivor.  

More recently in my life, it seems that Corporate America has been doing it’s finest to groom me into an island ready, Jeff Probst fearing, don’t-spoil-the-rice kinda girl.  In the past 6 months I have learned a solid alliance is hard to find.  Trust is easily ruined like a shelter made of palm leaves with no tarp.  Obstacles exist, and they don’t often have an immunity reward.  Boston Rob and Russell Hantz lurk around every corner.  When your fire goes out, it takes a village to built it back.  And when your tribe has spoken, oh man, it has spoken.  
That being said and negativity aside, you could not believe my amazement yesterday when I was setting up my sponsor booth at a “Survive and Thrive” Realtor trade show event.  Sweet idea in a rough economy.  Very encouraging.  Very fun.    
I was glancing around the room to see where my competitors were going to be standing when I noticed an empty table, a black sharpie, and a sign that said “Rudy the Survivor.”  Could this be legit?!  Did they really spring to bring THE Rudy to this function?  There’s no way… or is there?
  
Yes sir, they did!  That is me, and one of the original Survivor cast members - Rudy!  He is still old, still speaks his mind, and has had a photo shoot in Michael Bolton’s back yard.  True fact. 
Of course I had to get in line for a signed photo to put on my fridge, because what kind of cheesy, yet totally awesome, reality show fan would I be if I didn’t?!  We briefly chatted about how to spell my roommate’s name for her autographed photo.  “Caitlin.  C-A-I-T-L-I-N.  Yes, I said C.  No, not a K.  She spells it with a C.  Yes, a C.  Thanks.”  Then, instead of chatting about his time on the island with Richard, Wigglesworth (the only reason I remember her is because her last name is freakin’ amazing) and the rest of those crazy tv folks, we talked about Michael Bolton and his backyard.  Because what else would we discuss?!  I can’t even begin to make this nonsense up.  
So tonight, when I got home and presented my roommate with the holy grail of old man reality show autographs, and settled in on my pink couch with a glass of wine to watch the latest season of Survivor: Philippines, of course I had to run up to my room and recover my college nerd gear: my blue Survivor Buff.  
Yes, I have a Survivor Buff.  No, I don’t wear it every day.  Just every other.  Just kidding.  Maybe.
And then I decided I absolutely, positively MUST show you the best ways to rock a Survivor Buff while NOT on an island.   

Fun fact.  After typing up the entire post I just had to ask Siri if I was spelling Reality Show or Realty Show.  Proudest-Moment-Ever.

*No border collies were lied to, No vacuuming was actually done, Clothes were worn while in the shower and No cars were stolen in the making of this blog post.  However, wine was consumed.*  

A Monday-y Tuesday.

by

Hello Monday Tuesday.  Don’t you just hate love how today feels like Monday but it’s actually Tuesday? Sure, there are many pros and cons to this fact and feeling.  However, I’m pretty positive the pros drastically out weigh the cons.  I mean let’s be real - a “Monday” that leaves you an extra day closer to Friday is pretty rare and incredible.

So how was your weekend extra long holiday weekend?  I have a feeling I am going to take a few days, eh, probably all week, to recap the amazingness of my weekend.

My New York Mets tickets arrived.  I took my mom to eat “crazy asian food” and watched her use kid-choppies.

I worked my first wedding of the season.  It felt good to be working but to be in love with the work I was doing.

I spent time with my guy.  I spent time at the river.  I spent two thirds of the weekend topless.  As in the Jeep.  I went to a cookout.

And I pinned a million things in my down time.  So yeah.  Pretty sure one post can’t recap the joy that this weekend brought me.  If only today wasn’t a Tuesday that feels like a Monday though… A Wednesday that felt like a Monday would be even better.

Did you do anything exciting over this Memorial Holiday?  Tell me about it!  See you tomorrow for the wedding recap! xoxo

Blog a little Blog.

by

It’s 8pm on a Tuesday night.  And I just realized I didn’t do anything for “Adventuresome Tuesday.”  My bad.  I almost didn’t even do a post today.  Life has been crazy.  Again, my bad.  

But after wrapping up an hour and a half long skype convo with one of my most favorite friends in the entire world and her adorable son that is so cute I can invision him doing grape juice commercials within the next year… I decided I should put my thinking cap on and blog a little blog.

Bad news for you?  I don’t really have anything exciting to say!  Good news?  I am drinking wine so goodness only knows what will happen… here goes nothing.

My bangs have finally grown back in to a point where I don’t feel foolish.  I actually have received several compliments on them from strangers!  Odd, but cool, right?  Now I just need to even out their crookedness and I think I may have clearly navigated my way through bad-bangs-april. 
Despite the fact that I was on vacation for 1.5 weeks in April - it turned out to be a good business month for me.  I made my first youtube video for my agents and ended up bonus-ing 400 smack-a-roos!  Time to put that moo-lah aside for my next vacation!  The youtube video made me think maybe I should do a vlog (that’s what their called right?!) one day! 
Next vacation?  Already you ask?!  Yes.  Maine & New Hampshire for a wedding in June with a stop over for a Mets game in NYC! 
I have decided to give up excessive Target for the next month or two (if I can help it) and put all money that I would’ve spent into a savings account.  So when I am aimlessly cruising passed the end caps and I see one of those MUST HAVE “As Seen On TV” items - unless it is life or death, I will leave it.  And whatever it would’ve cost me will go into a savings account.  I am pretty sure if I stick it out, May and June can save me at least a third of a flight to Switzerland for Turkey Day! 
I just killed a mosquito.  Tis the season… already?!? 
The clearance wine (Merlot) I am drinking is brown.  Should I be worried? 
I have blog designs to work on…  And I think 2 cats & chloe needs a face lift.  What do you think?  Did you know I dabble in blog design?  Check out this one I am working on for a friend… www.traveltailsofadogmom.com While you’re there, show her some new blogger love!  (And let me know what you think of the design!)  
I made my Florida souvenir tonight.  Wanna see it?  

We took borrowed the sand from Clearwater, FL.  And I got the jar for only $9 and the tags on sale at Michaels!  Not to shabby to remember my day laying on the white sandy beaches of Florida right?  Now it sits on my dresser looking out at my balcony.  ðŸ™‚ 
Wanna use a cool app on your iPhone to combine your photos?  I used it for the pictures above of the sand project!  It’s called Pic Stitch - and it’s FREE!  It might come in handy for some photos I snap for this blog.  Just downloaded it today - so I will let ya know what I think next week! 🙂 
Last fun fact of the night - my desk has spilled sand all over it.  My keyboard and my mouse are a bit gritty.  This should make me upset, instead it makes me happy to think that there is a little Florida on my desk. 
Time to watch some New Girl.
xoxo.  Suz. 

inst-happening!

Full Disclosure: All content and pictures on this blog belong to Susan Geoghegan and the 2 cats & chloe site, unless otherwise stated. If you pin a picture, please give credit. Some links on this site may contain affiliate links. Clicking on these links helps support this blog. A "c/o" in front of a product represents that that product was either gifted to me in exchange for the post or I was compensated by said company for my time. However, all posts are my own thoughts, opinions and reviews! Thanks for your support!