WOW it has been a long time since I have done Humpdates. Alot has happened in the past couple of months. Here is a rundown:

We bought a piano! My boyfriend Jason has wanted a piano for the longest time, and his primary requirement in purchasing this house was that it have a good space for a piano. On a whim we decided to swing by a local piano warehouse, and it seemed like fate was on our side. They were closing for business and had a huge inventory of gorgeous brand new grand pianos they were selling. Jason picked up a stellar Bergmann 150 for an amazing price:

This also gave me a great opportunity to redecorate. I am pretty proud of this room.. I painted the entire room myself, made the silk shantung curtains by hand, Jason installed the chandelier, and we antiqued the plaster column to give it a vintage effect.

HALLOWEEN! Sallie Mae went as a B(ee) which is a lot funnier if you know the inside joke behind it. Jason went as a 30-year-old computer geek, and I went as a nurse – not a sexy nurse or a scary nurse, I just found some old scrubs I had stored in my closet and put them on. It’s very sad that our dog dressed up more than we did.

We did, however, pull out all the stops decorating the house! We had a creepy black wreath on the door, faux spiderwebs everywhere, pumpkins of course, and my favorite – two graves!

I also had the amazing opportunity to give back to my alma mater is a couple of ways. In college I was involved in Spencer Leadership Conference, which is basically an Aggie road trip where a select group of sophomores spends a weekend in Dallas meeting and learning from some of the best leaders in the city. As a student it was truly one of the most life changing events I ever experienced, so I was very honored and excited to be able to participate this year as a host family! Jason and I hosted three delegates (Anna, Diane, and Miki) at our home, got to know them, fed them Jason’s amazing khabsa masala, and talked with them about leadership and their future paths as leaders. Then, as luck would have it, I traveled back to College Station that Saturday to take part in the first ever Texas A&M Womens Leadership Conference. Not only did I get to see a lot of my old college friends (who are now in leadership positions across the globe – compared to them I am a total slacker!), I also had the incredible honor of sitting on a panel of very accomplished women discussing the role that gender plays in being a leader. I learned so much, and hopefully I was able to share some of my own knowledge and experience with some of the wonderful women at A&M. Unfortunately I don’t have any photos, but you’ll just have to trust me when I say that was probably the most fulfilling weekend I’ve had in years!

I also went on a bit of a spending spree, including two lovely purchases from Canon:

Two new pairs of glasses (no photos, but they are CUTE), and $800 at Anthropologie. Yikes… I can’t help it, I love that store!!

The house is decorated for Christmas (by which I mean we never actually took down our Christmas decorations from 2007, so we were already good to go!) and I am happy to have some time off to relax and catch up with my friends. Today I had lunch with the incomparable Lynn Michelle and tomorrow my mom and I are heading to my favorite spot in the Metroplex, the Dallas Museum of Art, to see the Olafur Eliassson exhibit! If you haven’t seen it, it’s absolutely worth the admission.  He does amazing things with light and fabric; it’s truly art that you experience, not just look at.  Hope to see some of you there!