The most wonderful time of the year

I love this time of year! We live in Arizona so it is sometimes difficult to really capture that winter/ Christmas feeling, where we live there is definitely no chance of a white Christmas, it is still in the 70s today and supposed to hang right around there on Christmas too. I've done snow before and I can honestly say I do not miss it, I just don't like to be cold. Or shovel snow. Or scrape ice off my windshield. Or slip and almost die because I'm wearing flip flops even though it is snowing because I refuse to wear boots anymore because it is March and it should be sunny! Upstate NY and I did not see eye to eye on this.

White Christmas or not, I love holiday decorations! I'm really happy with how our tree turned out this year, I decided to go a little more  rustic and maybe more traditional to match the wreath I made for our front door. We usually go blue and silver but I decided to embrace the red this year, B really isn't a huge red fan and it is my favorite, but I decided to spare him by doing anything permanent like a red wall or something, when we started decorating the house. So he can give me Christmas, compromise is good. Unfortunately, we didn't really own red decorations, so I did some shopping. Definitely not the best quality pic, but it was from my phone when I was shopping. I didn't end up keeping the burlap bow and made my own instead, and I also picked up a lot more of the little berry and etc picks to stick throughout the tree. 
I love how the bow turned out! I roughly followed this tutorial here, it was super easy! I wish I had added some other sort of ribbon wrapped around the tree or had some garland to wrap between the layers of ribbon but it is on my list for next year. The red ribbon is a really pretty red and tan plaid with snowflakes printed on it that I found at Michaels. I also only had 1.5" ribbon on hand, something larger might've been better but we only have a 6' tree so I think it worked out ok. I wanted to add some giant ornaments against the "trunk" of the tree to add some depth but I decided to pass on those this year as well, I might try to find some after Christmas though. Instead I used these giant clip on poinsettias deep in the tree. It helps to cover up some of the bigger gaps, which I like and I wish I had grabbed a few more. I also really like the extra pop of color and how they look against the green of the tree and the ribbons.

So this is our tree this year! I love all of my gingerbread cookie ornaments, I've had them for years and never really had a chance to use them but they worked perfectly this year. I added a little extra detail to the tree with some super cheap floral picks, I was able to cut off the individual sections with some wire cutters and place them throughout the tree. They really helped to fill in some of those bigger gaps as well. For a tree skirt this year all I did was wrap some scrap burlap around the base of the tree. I think it pulls everything together nicely and I already had it, so free is nice as well!

 More projects around the house to come soon!

Holiday Party!

Yesterday was B's company holiday party. He works for GoDaddy and every year they rent out Chase Field and throw a truly spectacular event, this year was no exception. B and I had a blast, my hair actually stayed curled this year (that is a huge success by the way!), performers were awesome, and it was just an awesome excuse to get dressed up.

I am so not a girly girl, I'm actually really terrible at typical "girl" stuff but occasionally it is fun to have a girly night and get all dolled up. I don't have many excuses to get dressed up but I am totally digging on this site Rent the Runway. If you follow that link you should get a $20 rental credit after your first rental. The site is amazing! You are able to rent designer dresses for just a few days and pay a fraction of the price. I wish I had known about this back when I was doing the whole prom thing... I have not worn any of those dresses again and I probably spent thousands over the years between 3 proms, 4 homecomings and a couple others in between. They have reviews on the dresses from real girls that have actually worn them, plus you get a free second size just to make sure you get a perfect fit! I seriously love RTR, I've used them a few times now and will absolutely be doing it again.

Baby sis graduates tomorrow! So happy for her! And we now have 3 ASU grads in the family, since that is also where my dad got his MBA from and I graduated from a few years ago. Time is flying!

I have so much work to do on that furniture set but just a little update.... it is looking SO much better so far. Pictures to follow soon!

Who says Friday the 13th is unlucky?

I am definitely not in that category after today! And I am seriously loving craigslist lately! In the last month I have scored 2 totally sweet finds via CL. I got the trestle legs for my desk back in November and then we just found an awesome oak 4 piece bedroom set for $150! They need to be refinished, they are that awful honey oak color that I seriously cannot stand and would definitely clash with the gray and silver and pale blues we have going in our master, but the potential is there!

We have been desperately in need of a bedroom set but I've been struggling (since May) to find one that will work for us but won't cost thousands of dollars. The main issue I had been struggling with was the nightstands, they needed to be at least 25" wide.... much more difficult to find than you might expect. Why do they need to be so wide? I found these amazing mirrors on clearance somewhere months and months ago, and I really want to hang 2 above each nightstand windowpane style. The mirror are about 12" across, and I don't want the mirrors wider than the table, hence the super long search for the perfect bedside table.


I think we really lucked into this one. I would've been happy spending $150 for the 2 nightstands alone but now we also get a 9 drawer dresser and a highboy. That isn't really a piece that we need necessarily, but we have room for it in our closet so it'll get put to use. Right now the plan is to paint them black, I'm thinking satin/ eggshell finish for the paint, and then I'd also like to replace the hardware but I'm not 100% sure on that. I love the different styles of knobs on the furniture, I think it gives it a really unique style. I haven't decided yet how I want to handle the gold trim details on some of the doors and drawers. Gold isn't really our decorating style so I'm leaning towards covering it up somehow, either painting it black like the rest of the set will be, or some sort of silver or metallic look. Not the top priority at this point though. I am actually on my way to the store now to pick up supplies, although I don't know if I'll be able to get started this weekend. Tomorrow is B's company holiday party, Sunday we have his softball championship games (4 hours of softball... yikes!), and then my little sister graduates on Monday! Busy busy busy. I am super excited to get this underway though!

Thankful!

Did you have a good Thanksgiving? It has seriously thrown me for a loop having Thanksgiving so late in November. It was a busy month!

My best friend was in town for about a week. I hadn't seen him in almost a year! About this time last year he was living in Wyoming and came home for a couple weeks with his girlfriend before leaving for their 3 month bike tour of New Zealand. He was back in town for all of 3 days before heading back to Wyoming to help out at the lodge his parents bought. (I haven't had a chance to visit yet, but it looks beautiful and his family is seriously the greatest ever.)  While up there over the summer he got engaged (yay!) and found a job working for a paper... back in Wyoming. This is too funny because he and the gf were dying to get out of Wyoming, and they just can't seem to do it. Long story short, I've missed him like crazy and it was so SO good to finally catch up!

It was also my mom's 50th birthday and my sister's birthday last week. We had an amazing steakhouse dinner to celebrate. I feel silly to admit this, but I ordered the sea bass, at an incredible steakhouse... I know, I know. But it pretty much melted in my mouth it was so good. I've never been so uncomfortable full in my life. I made the mistake of betting my dad that I could finish the butter cake by myself. After a full meal. With a name like butter cake I probably should've known what I was getting myself into. I am embarrassed proud to say that I made it, somewhat painfully, through. Delicious but so rich and filling. I have the ultimate sweet tooth and that definitely did it for me.

Thanksgiving was a pretty quiet affair. B and I went over to my parents' for dinner with the fam. Usually we bring our fur baby but with the addition of Lux, and my family adopting another rottie, we wanted to make sure we could have puppy introductions before putting them all in the house together for an extended period of time. Unfortunately, we had some seriously crazy rain the last couple of weeks and all of the parks have been kinda flooded, neutral ground probably being best for first time intros. So hopefully we can fit something in with Christmas just around the corner so that the whole family can be included.

We didn't do any black Friday shopping this year. Well, technically I guess that isn't true. Kohl's had sheets on sale so B and I bought 2 new sets. I decided I didn't want to stand outside in the cold or wait in line for 2 hours this year, nothing that we need enough to make it worthwhile. And everything is online now! We finally brought my mom up to speed with the modern world and convinced her to order all of the dvds she wanted online, with free shipping, instead of going to Target/ Best Buy at midnight. Seriously.... why doesn't everyone do this?!

Hope everyone had a good holiday!

Office Inspiration

So, the next room on my list to work on is my office. I have put it off for a LONG time. That room has essentially been a dumping ground for all of the stuff we don't have a place for/ don't know what to do with. Needless to say, it is a disaster, when we have people over we sort of just shut the door and hide the mess. I'm ready for my own space though, I've sort of taken over the dining room table for my laptop and craft projects and now that is sort of a disaster too. Are you seeing a theme here?

If you follow me at all on Pinterest, I have a board just to inspire me to put together the amazing office/ craft space that I want. My very favorite room is from the blog A Bowl Full of Lemons. I love everything about this space.
The shelves above the desk, the pretty organization, that it is both functional AND beautiful. And that pretty much everything is from Ikea. I know Ikea can be very polarizing, personally I love the store but I know many others that feel differently. I worked there for 3 years though, so I may be biased.

This is sort of the look that I am going for in my own office space. I have a good amount of room to work with, honestly the space could perfectly function as a bedroom, not some tiny room that we're just repurposing as an office. I just scored these Finnvard trestle legs off craigslist for $20 for the set! They're $30 a piece at Ikea, which isn't bad but I'm trying to stay somewhat on budget. (I don't really have a budget, just an imaginary number in my head that I really don't want to go over. We'll see what that number is when I get there!) The table top I want to go with it is 59"x30" and $36. That's not bad but I'm still looking at other options too, like buying some wood planks to screw together and stain. B rolls his eyes every time I mention a new project, so we'll see how that goes.

Halloween

Yikes, how has so much time gone by? I've apparently been gone awhile, but honestly not a whole lot has been going on. I'm still indecisive on paint colors for the house. We still haven't done anything else. And it is pretty much the end of October. Good news though, it finally cooled off so we have no more excuses, besides financial reasons I suppose, not to finish up on the house.

We went out for Halloween last night. Do you watch Dexter? Or I guess did you watch Dexter would be a better question since the series finale happened. Sidenote: anyone else think that was the most disappointing conclusion to an epic series? I won't give it away if you haven't watched the show yet because besides that episode it is amazing. But I was seriously let down. The writers totally killed it for 8 seasons and then just took the easy way out I thought with the finale. Anyways, back on track... Dexter was the inspiration of our costume! That is my sister as Deb Morgan, B as Dexter, and myself as a kill victim. We apparently fail and somehow this awful phone picture is the only one I can find currently. We had so much fun out though! It was a good night, and now October is nearly over! Like I said before.... where has all this time gone?




Update: This is the only other picture I can find from that night... That is us with our friends Michelangelo, the ninja turtle, and Joe Dirt.

Sangria Sunk

I have never been so hungover in my life. Actually, I've never had a hangover in my life, even post 21st birthday shenanigans I was good to go the next day. This has been a rough Monday, I have not moved from my spot on the couch since I woke up this morning. Apparently 2 days of wine cocktails are enough to do me in. Or my body is telling me I'm not 20 anymore. Either way, holy headache. And naptime.

Happy birthday to me!

Not a lot to update... we're still sort of taking a break from the home improvements because it is just so incredibly hot out. In the meantime, today is my birthday! A quarter of a century....I feel old when you say it like that. Don't let B here me complaining though... he's working his way through his 30s and gives me a "You call that old?" look whenever I start in on that. We're keeping it fairly low key this year, dinner with the fam tonight and then Sangria Saturday and hanging by the pool with B, my sister and some friends. Have a good weekened!

Yes!

No more major purchases!

B and I are not making much progress on that to do list. Mostly because in the last week we've each gotten a brand new car! I got my new Verano last weekend and yesterday we got B into a Ford Focus hatchback. He currently drives a 2004 Dodge Durango, it gets awful gas mileage... with his drive to work he was putting in basically $100 a week. We needed something more fuel efficient, obviously, but also something that the dogs will fit in. That's where the hatchback came in. With the seats folded down we have a bunch of space for the dogs to stretch out. Eventually we'll probably upgrade to an SUV but since it is just B and I and the dogs we don't really need the extra room. We don't have the car yet, they had to have it delivered to the dealership, but we'll be able to pick it up tomorrow when B gets off work!

Small accomplishment though, I finally set up my Keurig! My parents got me one for Christmas and I had just never gotten around to setting it up. I am enjoying my first cup of coffee from it as I type. Love the convenience of it so far, the little K-cups are so simple to use without having to measure coffee grinds. And maybe this way I won't go overboard and drink a whole pot of coffee! Now that we have dishes (thank you Ikea!), the kitchen is really coming together. We still need new pots and pans, a knife block, and I'd like to replace our red toaster and white toaster oven with black versions, but we're nearly there!

My parents are coming over this afternoon to meet Lux! Can't wait for them to see her. My dad and Luna are already bffs, it is really cute to see how excited they both get to see each other.

Hopefully next time I'll have some actual progress to post! It's just way too tempting to spend the day by our pool instead of working on the house, but we'll get there.

I have one rule: New is always better.

Yesterday I said good bye to a long time friend. This was my baby. I bought her when I was going to school in NY, and then decided to move home less than 2 months later. So we spent 3 days driving cross country back to AZ. I loved my Volvo but she wasn't a young lady anymore... 2003 with over 105k miles. It was getting to where I was going to have to start doing preventative maintenance and I really just wasn't ready for that kind of investment in a car I knew I would be getting out of sooner rather than later.

I've been researching cars online for awhile now, but you can only get so much reading reviews and looking at pictures so yesterday B and I decided to go test drive some of my favorites. Let me just say, car shopping in July in Arizona is possibly the worst idea ever. We stopped by Chevy and I looked at the Cruze and the Equinox. I liked them both and the Cruze was a serious contender. My little sis has one and she loves it. I looked at an upgraded one with remote start and a few other cool features. We went over to Buick to look at the Verano and I may have fallen in love. The guy we worked with was awesome, he got me into the Verano for the exact same price that I would've gotten into the Cruze for but I have leather seats, a rear view camera, satellite radio, Pandora connectivity and the remote start that I really wanted to have. Haven't had a chance to drive it yet, but I love it so far. I did sacrifice on fuel economy over the Cruze but it is a much smoother ride. And it is an automatic! After nearly 5 years of driving stick its a welcome change! I'll post a better picture later but that's from the dealer site. Love it!

Accomplishments!

Unfortunately we haven't managed to get anything done off of the to do list so far. We had a bit of a situation come up with the pool but now all is well.


A few weeks ago we noticed that our pool didn't seem to be registering that there were chemicals in in. We talked to our pool repair guy and he said it probably needed to be drained, since we didn't know when the previous home owners last drained it. Well, we put it off. About a week ago we got hit with a storm that did enough damage that our pool was getting a greenish film over it that we couldn't get rid of with any amount of scrubbing and filter running. Contacted a company to drain and acid wash the pool and we went from the photo at left to the sparkling pool at the right. We're going to hire a company to take care of the chemicals and keeping the water balanced so that we don't have to worry about it. Once we get rid of the tree that clogs the skimmer on a daily basis I think that'll be so much easier to do, but for now we'll let someone knowledgeable take care of it.

Also, we bought dishes! We'd been using my set from my first apartment. 4 plates and 4 bowls. With only 2 of us in the house we would run out of clean plates before we had a full load of dishes. Enter Ikea. We went with the Fargrik 18 piece dinnerware set. It is white stoneware with service for 6. We bought 2 sets and then 12 of the larger bowls all for about $90. One of the things I loved about this set is that it doesn't come with coffee mugs, none of the sets at Ikea do. They sell them individually so I may pick up a couple that match (they're only $0.99!) but B doesn't drink coffee so we really have no need for a full set of mugs. It was driving me crazy trying to find a set of dinnerware that didn't have mugs and had good reviews. These are microwave and dishwasher safe, cheap to replace should we need to, and white is such a basic color that I can just invest in some pretty chargers if we ever entertain and dress them up a bit.

Today is my only day off for the week so I'm going to go enjoy it!

Fur baby!

 Meet Lux! Our little girl Luna finally has a baby sister! We adopted her yesterday from one of the no-kill shelters in Phoenix, Home Fur Good. They think she is a lab and some sort of shepherd mix looking at her ears and coat. She is a sweet little fur ball, but definitely still a baby, only 10 weeks old.


It is super cute because she looks a lot like Luna, we'll see if that holds true as she gets older. B and I bought her a tiny version of Luna's collar so now they match. Luna seems to love having a baby sister so far. She seemed a little apprehensive initially, but I think having a live in playmate will be really good for her. She's still learning how to play with Lux, her aunties are 100lb rottweiler so it is a bit of an adjustment to go to an 11 lb baby.

Nap time is over, playtime now!

To do list

I am a list maker. Almost to the point that I should be going to meetings, does LMA exist? I firmly believe that lists get things done, there is something almost exhilarating about checking something off, a definite sense of accomplishment. That being said, B and I are desperately in need of feeling like we've accomplished anything other than watching Pitch Perfect 3 times in 2 days. Side note... we don't know how that happened, we only watched it for the songs! And the slightly-cuter-Dane-Cook-10-years ago lookalike. But seriously, we have so much we still want to do that it is getting a little overwhelming. So.... our to do list, and it is a doozy.

Master Closet (how are we not done yet??)
- find darker divided hamper
- add hooks to hang belts/ scarves
- decide if we're removing the closet door
- stain dresser and add new pulls
- jewelry box

Master Bathroom
- decide on paint color (finally)
- paint
- buy new bathroom textiles
- install shelving in water closet
- frame mirror/ install new mirror(s)
- hooks for towels (if closet door is removed)

Master Bedroom
- curtains
- bedside tables
- lamps for bedside tables
- new ceiling fan
- dresser for tv/ extra storage
- bench/ ottoman for end of bed
- artwork/ picture collage

Kitchen/ Dining Room
- dining room table and chairs
- rug?
- paint island
- curtains

Living Room
-buy loveseat and chaise
- coffee table
- curtains
- entertainment center/ fireplace

Laundry Room
- decide on paint color
- paint
- organize!

The guest bedroom, bathroom and both offices are pretty much blank slates right now. We haven't discussed at all what we want to do with those, so no list yet. We're also refinishing all of the door hardware to oil rub bronze from the boring standard brass. Long term, we'd like to stain all of the cabinets and repaint all of the interior doors, hopefully within the next six months.

Outside we have this huge, leafy tree, you can kind of see it in the middle of the yard there. It clogs our pool filter with leaves on a daily basis. We are so done with it. Plus for our fur baby it'd be nice to have some more yard. The cost of tree removal, and more so stump grinding, is a bit of a deterrent right now, but we'd love to have that out by the end of summer.

Looks like we have our work cut out for us!

Chevron love

 My jewelry pin board! I made this originally at our rental house and it was covered in tan linen with blue ribbon. Needless to say, it was not working with our current color scheme for my our closet. I bought the chevron fabric at Hobby Lobby to re-cover it. You can't really see in this photo but I used clear pushpins with black crystals glued to the top to go with the black ribbon and the rest of the closet. Once I find the rest of the accessories I'll try to post some detail shots.

I still need to find some sort of jewelry box for my earrings and the rest of my bracelets. I have a bunch of really chunky ones that just won't hang on a pushpin. And it'd be nice to have somewhere to put some of my nicer jewelry. I'm hoping I can take care of that today after my hair appointment. So happy to have accomplished something.

We've kind of taken a break from household improvement stuff. B is just getting back into the swing of things at work, he was on a sort of leave of absence right after we bought the house. Money is finally flowing back in but we're getting caught up on things before going crazy buying furniture. I expect that after next week we'll be able to get the ball rolling again though!

Linens and things

Our bedding was officially purchased today! B and I were at Target on Sunday buying a baby shower gift for one of our friend's when I made this find. Nice and light gray paisley print, it is a little bit difficult to make out in the picture, I know. The best part though is that the 3 piece set was marked down from $100 to $50! I decided to sleep on it and went to visit the set today. Since we weren't necessarily in love with the JCP set I was totally willing to take the $40 in savings over the JCP set and B was easily won over as well. Fortunately for me there were still 2 sets left when I picked ours up this afternoon, along with a 2 shelf shoe rack for B.

I set it up as soon as I got home and so far we're both really happy with it. It is a little bit wrinkly right now, since it went on the bed straight out of the package, but I'll try to fix that in the dryer tomorrow. I also need to pick up some queen size pillowcases for the shams. The standard size I currently have just don't fill them out properly.


I think these are the curtains I'm looking at to go with the new comforter set, possibly layered over white sheers? I have always loved dupioni silk curtains but most of them are well over $100 per panel. Seeing as we need 3-4 panels, depending on how handle the second small window in the master, real silk just isn't an option. These faux silk curtains are just $30 per panel though, so that is definitely within our budget. Time for some pinterest/ houzz inspiration for how I handle these window treatments!

My amazing find!

 We now have bar stools for the island! I found these bad boys for $14 a piece on clearance at Target. We are loving them so far. The legs are a bronze-y metal and then they have black (faux) leather seats, they match perfectly with our color scheme and for $14 even if they don't last forever I won't mind.

Originally we'd talked about getting stools that had a back support but decided that we'd rather that they stay out of the way and not take up our walkway. Another issue I had been running into was finding a seat that was actually comfortable to sit on, most of them were just way too small! These are 16 inches square, so even B, who is slightly larger in the tush than I am, can sit on them comfortably.


I think we finally agreed on bedding too! For the most part at least. My original plan was to do all white bedding to go with the charcoal gray walls and dark espresso/ black wood accents throughout the room. B and I were a little worried that all white would come off to country and we're looking for something just a tad more chic, but not over the top. I love the simple gray design on the bedding, "understated elegance" as it is described on the JCP site. B isn't crazy about the pillow situation, which is why we mostly agree on the bedding. I don't want the 2 accent pillows, but I do want the euro shams so even though he thinks they'll just end up on the floor collecting dog hair, which I don't intend for them to do, we'll probably get them as well. I love that everything is finally coming together!

Happiness is...

Having a whole shelf just for my purses! I also have a box on the shelf just below where all of my tops are hanging for my wallets and clutches. I'll probably look for a cute basket to swap out for the black Ikea drawer organizer that I'm currently using for that.

I moved an Ikea Billy bookcase from the living room to the closet to store my shoes. And then the hanging organizer has my flip flops, work shoes and running shoes. Below my dresses are my winter boots, which really only get used for a few months of the year since it isn't very cold here. No snow boots (thank you Arizona), just some comfy pull on boots to wear with skinny jeans and sweaters.

B has a similar shelf above his side of the closet, we're using that for storage right now. I need to buy a few more of the storage boxes that I'm using but I'll post the finished product once everything is set. It is a little sad that the closet is the only room totally finished but I smile every time I walk in, so I think that's ok.

A puppy birthday

Today is this little lady's birthday. 2 years old! Growing up so fast. She's spoiled and loved to pieces. Picking up some presents and treats on my way home from work today. Happy birthday Luna Love!

Closet lighting

So I had thought we were done with the master closet, and although I think the necessities are out of the way, I really want to find a better light fixture. I've always wanted a chandelier in my walk in closet and although our ceilings probably aren't tall enough for a fancy one, I've found a few fixtures that I do like.

o.co $136.99

o.co $133.09

o.co $116.99

o.co $116.99

I'm sort of leaning towards the bottom right, but what do you think?

Success!

I finally have an entire "room" finished. It is the master closet so I use the term room rather loosely, but either way it is done! I cannot wait to start moving my clothing into the space. B is out of town, visiting his family in Oregon. This is the longest we've been apart since we started dating and I really can't wait to have him home tomorrow. Anyways, I can't wait to show him how much better it looks! See for yourself:

I painted the walls Repose Gray to match our living spaces, trim and shelves are Chalk, the wooden poles were probably my least favorite with the natural wood so I stained them using the Dark Walnut Minwax stain we had bought for our cabinets. I found these baskets super cheap at TJ Maxx, the shelf is pretty long so I'd really love to find a few more but I'll make it work. Overall, I couldn't be happier with how it turned out!

Paint colors

Still trying to figure out this master bath color situation. There are just way too many options. B isn't very much help because "they pretty much all look the same" to him. Also, the fact that I can't get these to line up properly is driving me crazy. Any suggestions/ recommendations for a nice relaxing mater bathroom color?

Whirlpool- BM

Sweet Innocence- BM

First Snowfall- BM

Beacon Gray- BM

Hinting Blue- SW

Whoa, we're halfway there...

With painting the trim that is. I'm really happy with it so far. B taped off half of the room for me a couple days ago so this morning I figured I'd do something productive as long as I was up so early.

I did 2 coats of our Chalk color and it seems to be covered pretty well but I'm thinking I'll do one more coat just to make sure. Honestly, I just want this room to be finished. It'd be nice to actually be sleeping in our bedroom instead of the much smaller, much brighter guest bedroom.

And then next up is painting the master closet, which is huge as far as closets go at least. The room is (nearly) 7' x (just over) 12' and finally gives us all of the space that we need. I don't want anything too bold in the closet since all of the clothing will be so colorful anyways so we're painting it with Repose Gray to tie in with our living spaces. We haven't finalized a bathroom color but I want something relaxing and spa like. I finally have a bath tub big enough for me to stretch out in and I fully intend to take advantage of that!

B is calling so the master closet and rest of the bedroom are taped off. Time to get back to it, I swear this never ends.

Smitten

Yesterday was our anniversary. Three years since we started dating! This is totally crazy but B and I have actually lived together since day 1 of our relationship. After the first night at his place I just never left. That makes me sound like a crazy person. To be fair, about a week in I asked him if he wanted me to spend some time at my own apartment, to which he replied "No, I like waking up with you," and the rest is history. In a little over a week we're going to be apart the longest we have been since we've been together. B is going to see his mom and grandmother since she isn't doing very well right now, so he's flying back home from the 16-19th. Is it weird that 3 nights is the longest we've gone apart? It has worked for us I guess but it'll be kinda lonely.

Anyways, it seems like it has taken forever but our walls are finally painted in our master bedroom! And I am absolutely in love with our walls! It is truly a sexy shade of gray, romantic without being girly. I still have to paint the trim. As you can see B did the prep work for me so I'll have to go back one of these early mornings and knock it out. Probably this weekend. And then we can move in! And I can sleep in past 7!

I can't wait to see how much better it looks without the tape and drop cloths everywhere! And our brilliantly white trim, of course.

Pool and paint

The pool is fixed! And it was under $200 which I was relieved about, we had been prepared for it to cost so much more. One of the couples we know that live out here had been in a similar situation with their pool and recommended this guy to us.

 

 Ignore the pool float. It was too cold for me to get in and drag it out this morning. We have a family with a bunch of kids living in the house behind us and the amount of their stuff that ends up in our backyard, mostly balls of various sorts, is ridiculous. Luna adores the pool. She is such a good little swimmer too, with her tail wiggling the whole time. That was actually a really big part of why we wanted a pool.

Mesa wasn't our first choice location by any means. I wanted to stay in Ahwatukee, I've basically lived there since I moved to AZ in third grade with just a few short stints elsewhere, but we didn't want to sacrifice on the size of the house, or the backyard, or the pool, so we had to expand our search a bit. 

 

Also, our bedroom paint has officially been purchased! So excited to get started. Right now we're living in one of the guest bedrooms so the sooner we can get everything situated, the happier I will be. The sun has been waking me up by 630 every morning so I am ready to be in our master that doesn't get a crazy amount of morning light. I keep falling asleep by about 1030 or 11 every night because I'm completely exhausted. And B has been sleeping until almost noon since he can sleep through anything. Time to synch our sleep schedules back up!

We're here!

I hate moving! Fortunately, my parents are saints and helped us out, especially dad to help B with the heavy lifting, since I am a self proclaimed weakling. The most exciting part... this is the last move we're doing for a very long time. Since B and I started dating almost 3 years ago we have moved 5 times now. I know, it is completely ridiculous. And most of those moves were in the summer when it was 100+ outside.

It was actually pretty nice this weekend and it is so good to actually be living in the house that we bought way back in January. We were hoping to use the pool this weekend but apparently our filters or something got rocked by a storm that came through not too long ago and it is looking a little green. B and I have never owned a pool so we're calling around to get some advice on fixing it, not really an expense we had planned for.

The house is a disaster zone right now. Time to get to work making our house look like a home!

Shades of gray

We finally decided on our master bedroom color! To be fair, I actually fell in love with this color a long time ago but was really nervous to go so dark, B loves it though and since I really haven't given him a whole lot of choice with anything else, I'm ready to take the plunge.

Also, this beautiful bedroom on dear lillie is painted in Kendall Charcoal (Benjamin Moore) as well, and I am obsessed. Romantic and cozy without being overly girly. I'm picturing white bedding, picture frame mirrors over the nightstands, black and white canvas prints, and plenty of dark wood.

Besides deciding on another shade of gray, no progress. But we did decide to just take the plunge. Instead of trying to drive back and forth we're moving on the 20th! So excited to finally be out there, but kinda stressed about everything we have to do.

25!

I'd like to start this on a good note since I am so completely annoyed with how today went. Before I start complaining/ whining, I'd like to congratulate my parents on 25 years of marriage! So proud of them and so grateful for the amazing example they have always set of a healthy, loving relationship.

And congratulations on the new family member. S, my human sister, and I are officially outnumbered by our 4-legged siblings as my parents just adopted their third rottweiler, Zona. She has no idea how completely spoiled she is going to be. Unfortunately this is all of the pleasant news I have to share today.














B and I decided to get started on the staining project. Knowing it is a huge undertaking we decided to start in the guest bathroom, it is a smaller area and if it isn't perfect at least it isn't in plain view in the kitchen or the master bathroom where I'd have to see it everyday. Part of this is probably because we were lazy and, instead of sanding, bought a deglosser that we were told would do the trick. Can you see where this story is going?

Bathroom prepped and ready to go. It is hard to see but the stain we picked out was dark walnut, so gorgeous as pictured. I all but rubbed my arm off going over the front and back of all the drawer and cabinet fronts and then B got to work with the stain. We waited, removed the excess, applied a second coat, waited, removed the excess, and then cried. Alright, we didn't actually cry, although I wanted to-- hours of work, completely wasted, because you can't see a difference. Or at least it isn't noticeable enough to have been worth all of the effort.

This shows what we "accomplished" on one of the drawer fronts. It is leaning against the kitchen cabinets as a frame of reference, since they started the same color. We're not giving up, but we're definitely taking some time off to regroup. When we re-attempt this down the road I am 1) insisting that we actually sand, based on our results I think the extra effort will be worth it. And 2) going with a stain gel. Everything I've been reading since this fiasco recommends General Finishes gel stain in java. The color looks like exactly what I want for the kitchen and bathrooms so I'm going to take the time to get it right. I think B would rather just throw in the towel, he has no issues with the cabinet color, but he says he wants me to get my beautiful kitchen so we'll make it happen :)

Until next time