Nursery Reveal

Again, I apologize for the iPhone pics... But here is the nursery complete!!






The mirror was the color inspiration. I bought it at least a year before we got pregnant. I knew I had to have the mirror, but had no idea where it would go in the house.... Until I started planning the nursery...






The ink sketches were done by my talented sister in law, and was exactly what I wanted!! Made my Sarah Richardson design-inspiration complete!!





















"Promise me you'll always remember you are Braver than you believe, Stronger than you seem and Smarter than you think"

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Bedroom wall stencil

It just occurred to me that I never posted pics of the wall stencil we FINALLY put on our master bedroom wall! Eventually I hope to post pics from my actual camera, instead of my iPhone, but for now these will have to do!!

The stencil took 2 people (me & my mom) and took about 3 hrs total (well, more like 5... But we had to make a run for some more craft paint when we ran out, and we ended up doing a bit of shopping as well....)

I absolutely LOVE it! It totally transformed the room and added that little Oompf that it was missing...


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Nursery update!

We've finally put all the furniture together and in its rightful place. Slowly, I'm going through what we've been given thus far, washing it all and putting it away. There is still a LOT we need (and I'm not even sure what it all is either!), but it's coming slowly. Just need to hang the bookshelf, mirror, and pics (once my sister-in-law finishes the sketches!).



Wall decal from etsy. (can you see the resemblance to Sarah Richardson's Sophisto-Nursery??) The 5 sketches by my sis-in-law will go on the stripes above above the crib.



Before the other wall decal arrived...dresser is new from Ikea, crib is hand-me-down from a 2nd cousin, and the change table is also a hand-me-down. There's also a rocking chair at the end of the crib, in front of the closet door (cuz the room is so tiny! And this is our "big" spare room!!)



After the wall decal arrived (LOVE it!!) ("Promise me you'll always remember you are Braver than you believe, Stronger than you seem, and Smarter than you think")



Lamp I found at Babies R Us (and to think, the hubby originally wanted me to return it!!)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Nursery in Progress!

Finally getting some furniture put together and slowly loading the nursery after the new carpet was installed! A hand-me-down change table (matching crib being used by my brother!), new dresser from Ikea, and soon a hand-me-down crib will be put together too (just need some goo gone & some elbow grease to take off some ugly near stickers!!)




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Long overdue Update!

I know it's been several months (busy, busy!!) but just wanted to update you that my hubby and I are expecting our first child in March! That's right, I'm 25 weeks pregnant and getting a jump on the nursery already (had to put a pause on it though, as we decided to replace the old, ugly, worn berber carpet). Here's a quick pic of the gender-neutral stripes I've painted. The frames on the wall will be filled with black & white sketches of Winnie the Pooh characters, done by my very talented sister-in-law. My inspiration for the nursery was Sarah Richardon's "Sophisto-Nursery" from season 1 of Sarah 101.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

My Apologies...

First off, I must say how sorry I am that I haven't been around to blog much.  With the summer months, comes a very busy time for us.  Between playing baseball twice a week, ball tournaments, trying to get in some camping time with friends, and birthdays/weddings etc, we haven't had a lot of downtime.  And when I have, the last thing I've wanted to do is sit at my computer, when I spend all day on one at work. (not to mention, our office is a complete DISASTER, so it doesn't really make me WANT to spend any time in there!!)

And last but not least, I've been busy trying to get caught up at work. With tomorrow being my last day at this job (yes, I accepted another position with another homebuilder), I've been busy trying to get things in order for my replacement and cleaning up miscellaneous stuff I never had time for before. As I'm both excited and nervous to start at the new company on Tuesday, one thing is certain: I will truly, truly miss my coworkers here. We will keep in touch (that's an ABSOLUTE!!), but I will still miss them.  One of the reasons the decision was so difficult for me was because of my coworkers.  We have a fantastic time together, everyday. No lie.  And because of that, I will be sad to leave tomorrow....

I hope to be back to blogging soon (as I have some more Homesense finds to share!!), but I don't know when that will be. We're away this weekend camping at a ball tournament, so we won't be back 'til late Monday, then we'll be unpacking and getting ready for my new job next week.

Cake-tastic!

I'm super excited to say that I actually made this!!! (My hubby's birthday is tomorrow)


It may be a little girly, and made with Betty Crocker Supermoist cake mix, but I MADE the icing and decorated it myself!! Mmmm

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Home Office....

I don't know why I start thinking about another project before I've even completed the last one!! (let alone STARTED the last one!!).  Anyone else have this problem??  I think I need to stop watching HGTV, as Peter Fallico's latest episode of Home To Keep had me thinking about my office....

My husband recently started working from home more often.  And in an effort to improve productivity, we've also combined our home offices into one. It's really opened up the spare room, but it's seemed to have cramped the other.  With two monitors, two mice (I like my thumb trackball mouse!), and two computer stations, the entire office has become a disaster. And I can't stand it! (I'm not sure how he's working in there so frequently and still OK with it!!).

Let me explain a little....although we've combined into one office, we have not, by any means, combined into one computer (or accessories - we still have two computer stations, as I have my PC and he has his work lap top).  Instead of just working off the laptop though, he plugs it in to this base thingy so he can use a standard monitor, mouse and keyboard.  And since I use two monitors at work, he thought we could both use two monitors at home now...only problem is, we don't have a "switch" to easily switch the monitors back and forth between the computers (instead, we have to physically unplug from his computer and plug them into mine)...so now my PC sits ON the desk (instead of on the floor), the printer now sits on the floor, and the two monitors are on individual stands (to be closer to eye level).

We also have a tall filing cabinet that we rarely use. We purchased it at an auction awhile back, and since it had been through a lot in its days, 3 of the 5 drawers do not open (or are EXTREMELY hard to open).  I've been thinking lately that we could do without this filing cabinet (or maybe move it to the basement for long-term storage needs), and keep the daily files on a bookshelf. I originally thought I could do something like this, with shelves flanking either side of the desk:

And we currently have 2 unused bookshelves sitting in the basement that look something like this (they're not hideous, but they're OAK - bleh!!). With a little love, paint, and maybe a feature paint on the backwall, they could be fantastic...

So I've been playing around with some different layouts...(yes, that angled closet is our linen closet... if you think our 7'6"x9'6" office is small, that linen closet is RIDICULOUS!), but the tight space makes things a little difficult (especially since our office also doubles as my Make Up Room, since the bathroom lacks the storage space necessary for getting ready in the morning)



Option #2 would feel quite cramped walking into the room...so I think Option #3 leaves the most room...but is it really that much different from how it is now?! The use of the bookshelves would help remove knick-knacks from the desk itself...and the bottom shelves could have boxes that house current filing that would be easily accessible...  What do you think?  Maybe I should start on my other projects first though.....??? (although they're just for looks...this would actually CLEAN UP a space AND make it look good) Hmmm

A Good Day of Golf...

Last Thursday, I spent the day at a Charity Golf Tournament (for Kids With Cancer), put on by Gienow Windows  & Doors (one of our suppliers at work).  With all the rain we've been getting lately, I was surprised when it turned out to be a beautfiul day (chance of thundershowers in the afternoon, but they held off 'til late evening!).  My father in law always says "A bad day of golf is better than a good day of work!"  (so true!), but you know what's even better? A GOOD day of golf!!

A coworker and I were paired up with 2 (older) men.  They made the (wrong) assumption that neither of us were golfers.  We got to our starting hole before the shotgun start, and they wanted to give us a few tips before we tee'd off.  First, that the men tee off from the blue tees, and the women tee off from the reds.  Second, that we were playing "Texas Scramble", meaning that we had to use a minimum of 4 tee-off's from each player, and then everyone hit from best ball.  They went on to give us a few more tips, and we just listened.  Then, finally, I tee'd up my ball and just whacked it.  The ball flew straight and far.  My coworker tee'd up, and she hit straight and far as well.  That shut them up! haha... We ended up not using one of their tee off's until the 4th or 5th hole!

What made the day even better, was winning "Ladies Longest Drive".  Luckily, it was around hole #15 or so for us, so we had a lot of warm up time!  Sometimes my drives can veer off and have a slice to them, and other times (that I like), they go long and straight.  Luckily, it went long and straight. Probably one of the longest I've hit (around 215 yards!). I out-drove everyone on my team, and even hit PAST the end of the fairway!  I won a Kodak Playsport Zx5 Portable Video Camera. It's about the size of a cell phone, but I think we'll get a lot of use out of it! (it's even waterproof up to 10ft!).  Can't wait to use it!  Not a bad day of golf, huh?

{image via Kodak}

Eee & Bee Photographers

I just wanted to share with you a few pics from my brother's FIRST EVER wedding shoot for their new company, Eee + Bee Photography.  I think the pics turned out AMAZING! Congrats Brant & Liz on some gorgeous photos! Keep up the good work!

{all images via Eee+Bee}

Wedding Decor

As I mentioned yesterday, I've been strumming through some old photos... I came across our wedding pics and thought I'd share a little wedding decor with you, since it's wedding season and all. 

(pssst....Georgie, these are the bows we have for the pews...simple, translucent white with an iridescent trim)

Sorry, not much "decor" in this one, but I just had to throw this one in here...it just seems so serene and dramatic at the same time. And to think, I didn't want to wear a veil!!! But I'm glad I did, because I LOVED them in pictures!!! (my Mom even made it, since I didn't want to pay $150+ for something I didnt' want to wear in the first place....and she made it for $15 or less!!!)

I knew I wanted black, for the simplicity and timelessness that black offers, but I also knew I wanted to throw in a splash of color.  Each of the girls had a different color jewel-toned sash, and the guys had matching ties (sorry, I blurred their faces incase any of them didn't want their pictures posted)

These are some of my favorite photos...but they just weren't good for blowing up in our room...sigh.  I loved our photographers own wedding pictures so much, that I wanted to recreate it.  We had to use a different alley/escape ladder downtown, but they turned out gorgeous just the same!  (the scummiest of places can often make beautiful pictures!!)

It's amazing what some branches and white christmas lights can do for a room!!

This was our guest book table.  Those presents served as both our center pieces and our favors...inside were two bags of candy (Reese Pieces and Cabbage Patch Kids [some form of sour candy] - my hubby's favorite, and my favorite)  The picture doesn't show it well, but the black paper is also a damask print (I STILL have rolls of this gorgeous paper left 2 years later!! It's come in handy, especially since it's double-sided: grey & pink, and black & copper)  The centerpieces were time consuming, but well worth it!

I fell in love with this image, as it had two of my colors as well as a damask-ish pattern to it. It became the theme for all our invitations, ceremony programs, and menus.

Our wedding reception was held at an Italian hall, so it was only fitting to have some ice cream for dessert!



I also fell in love with the clean lines of my photographers own wedding cake, and asked for a similar interpretation



{images by Leah Rae Photography}

Some oldies....

As I was trying to write a few blog posts to stay ahead of things, I came across some old photos: our engagement photos!! Ok, so they're not THAT old (fall 2008?), but I thought I'd share a few  (I tried to find ones where my hubby's face isn't fully showing, as he has a hesitation of having his face posted on the internet...)

Can you believe we're sitting in a garbage dugout in an alley?? Yup....it was gross, but gave some good pictures!

{photos by Leah Rae Photography}

Kentucky Derby

Last Friday, we had my mother-in-law's 50th birthday party.  Since she loves themed parties, we decided to throw her a Kentucky Derby themed event at the racetracks.  It was quite the event, with everyone dressed in their Derby attire, from floppy hats to feathers and fedoras.  I had a blast designing the invitation for the party, and started with this as my inspiration:

Then, to avoid confusion, I also included "suggested attire", and found pictures for everyone's inspiration:

{images above via KentuckyDerby.com}