for our anniversary

We decided to purchase some plants! A local nursery was having a sale, and we really had nothing planned for the day, so we decided we would make our yard a little less naked. It is still a bit empty, but the boxwoods should fill out. We opted to get the smaller ones that were on sale for $15, rather than pay $40 for the next size up!

We also went out to dinner and ate some cake. Our top tier was unable to be saved after the wedding, (The gorgeous flowers on that were on top didn't necessarily make it the most edible), so our cake baker made us a little anniversary. It was chocolate and raspberry, and quite tasty.

Overall a very enjoyable first anniversary!

a lazy week...

equals nothing really to post about.  Actually it has been a somewhat busy week for me, but no progress worthy of photos on the house front.  We have hung a couple of pictures, but thats about it.

I did spend approximately 5 hours at Home Depot with our kitchen designer this week.  I am happy to report that we have actually finalized a design!  Hopefully we will go in on Friday to order the cabinets, and then the kitchen reno will begin.  I am still incredibly antsy to get the floors ripped up and see what is under there.  Still keeping my fingers crossed for some beautiful hardwoods, but I have a feeling they are going to be beyond repair.  

Lately I've been browsing for mirror to hang above our fireplace.  It is much tougher to find than I thought!  We want something large, and with a thick brown frame to break up the white.  I found this mirror at ZGallerie, but I'm not sure it is actually the one I want.  I would prefer some sort of wood frame.  Plus I would love to spend a little less than $300, but that seems to be the going rate for a large mirror.

On a side note today is our wedding anniversary!  I can't believe it has been a year since we got married.  And then I also can't believe it has only been a year.  I feel like so much has happened since then.  This morning we plan on making a nice breakfast together.  Not sure what the plan is for the majority of the day, but tonight we have dinner plans, and will be eating some cake!

photo by Adrienne Maples Photography

We opted not to get each other any gifts, seeing as both of our bank accounts are a bit drained, due to all of our home purchases.  Thats alright, I'll take my house over a gift any day!

Drinks, Dips and Desserts

Last night my mom, Kelsey and I threw a bridal shower for Christin. It was wonderful! I am pretty proud of how everything turned out. Everyone had a great time. Hope you enjoyed yourself Christin!

Our theme was 'Drinks, Dips and Desserts,' or entertaining if you will. We didn't specify the theme for gifts, but it was a fun theme to go with. Check out our spread of food! It was absolutely delicious. My mom is a great cook. Our menu included shrimp and cocktail sauce, meatballs, cheese fondue, fruit dip, spinach and artichoke dip, herb dip, chicken fajita dip and a variety of desserts.


We also served some champagne punch.
Champagne Punch
12 oz orange juice concentrate
6 oz lemonade concentrate
2 cups cold water
1 750 ml bottle riesling
2 750 ml bottle champagne
Combine orange juice and lemonade in a pitcher. Slowly add water and wine and stir. Just before serving pour in the champagne!

Because Christin and Keith are moving to China, our favors (along with some fabric) had a little bit of Asian flair.



I borrowed this present tagging system from Emily's shower that Whitney threw. It made the gift opening easy because no one had to be writing things down, plus it added a fun little game for Christin, because we had her guess what she thought was in the gift.


All of the guests wrote their favorite Christin memory on a note card. She later had to guess who the memory belonged to.


It was a wonderful evening!

our naked yard!

Good by overgrown bushes, and about 25 yucca plants! We got our entire yard cleaned out. In our opinion it looks SO much better. It is a bit bare now, and it will take us awhile to purchase plants to start filling the dirt back in, but I can see the potential now.








So far the only plants we know we would like to buy, are a few boxwoods for the front. Oh and a couple of knock out rose bushes (no I didn't make that name up!) for the back. Other than that, I have NO idea what we will do!

hello shutters

We painted the shutters yesterday.  Here is the before:

And the lovely after.

We actually decided to not go with black, but a very deep brown.  And what do you know, they came out  looking black.  That doesn't really bother me though.  Its because the shutters are never actually in the sunlight.  The color in sunlight is definitely brown.

On the agenda for today?  Yard work, and possibly installing the new outdoor light.  Fun stuff!

Yesterday I really didn't feel much like painting.  For some reason I was exhausted all day!  But we still managed to get quite a bit done.  Like hanging up our beautiful new ceiling fan!  It looks great, AND I purchased the $100 fan instead of the $150 fan we were looking at.  Once we got it hung up I was so happy that I did.  I don't think you can tell that its a 'cheaper' fan.

We also hung up a bunch of stuff in our hall bathroom... the shower curtain and rod, towel bar, shelf, mirror and a hook on the back of the door.  Now I really just need to figure out how to get that dang gold toilet paper holder thing out of the wall.  It is seriously stuck in there.  Oh and we need some new brushed nickel hardware on the vanity.  Eventually we will switch out the vanity top, but I think we have decided to just go ahead and repaint the vanity base that is currently there.  It is in decent shape.

In the guest bedroom we hung up some artwork.  Nothing to complicated :o).

Last night Chris also mowed the lawn, dug up some path pavers to flip them to the clean side, and he tacked the garage wall piece back up that fell down when I opened the garage last week.  I managed to squeeze in a three hour nap yesterday.  Ha, I guess that means Chris gets the gold star for productivity.

painting brick is NO fun

Yesterday we tackled painting the family room.  I think it is a pretty dramatic difference.  Check a couple posts back to see a before.

We still need to put a second coat of paint on the paneling as well as the brick fireplace.  (That is why you still see my lovely blue tape!  I'm still not 100% sure on the white brick.  We picked the white before the room was painted green, and now I feel like the white is a bit harsh.  I think I'm just going to live with it for awhile and see how I feel.  If I still am unsure in a few weeks maybe it will be a weekend project...

Last night Chris also put together the lovely glider bench I've been wanting!  I thought finding one was a lost cause because the bench was sold out on the internet, and according to the website none of my local stores carried it.  But the internet lies, and while in search of a carpet sample we found the bench!

I'll post some better pictures of the porch when I paint the shutters.  I am hoping to get that done today!

For some reason I didn't feel like posting this week... I really had nothing better to do, but I couldn't make my self take or upload any photos.  But I gave my self a little kick in the butt and decided it was about time.

First, I would like to start off by bragging just a bit.  These photos have been sitting on our bedroom floor since we moved in, and this week I decided it was time they get hung up.  Chris was studying so I took it upon myself.  And ta da!!  I hung them completely level and completely centered all by my self on the first try!  (Ok I made Chris come in so I could mark center, my arms weren't long enough to hold up the tape measure and mark)  I'm just a little bit proud :o).

This past week was a pretty rainy one, specifically Tuesday I believe.  Well when I came home from work, I discovered that water had started pouring in our basement through the windows as well as a crack in the wall.  Actually I first noticed the moat that Chris had dug around the backyard!  (I will take a picture soon)  Even though this little trench looks a bit ridiculous, apparently it worked.  Way to go hubby :o)  He also went out and bought window well covers so we wouldn't have so many problems.  Thank goodness we were gifted a dehumidifier from my friends parents.  At first I wasn't sure why we needed one, but it has definitely been put to good use!

I am thrilled for the upcoming week.  I took the entire week off work, because before we decided to buy the house, Chris and I had planned to go on an early anniversary vacation.  After we decided to buy the house we decided to skip the vacation, but still take the week off.  We have some projects planned!  I hope to paint our family room, as well as the shutters.  After I paint the shutters, I'd love to spruce up the porch.  The youngsters over at This Young House are my inspiration.  If only our local Home Depot carried the glider bench...

Chris has some other projects planned, which hopefully will include putting up a wall to make our basement that is currently a garage entry, an inside entry.  Then I will finally claim the hall bathroom and have some space to get ready!

Check back this week for our project progress!!

our NEW CARPET!

Today our new carpet was installed in the family room. The before and after pictures I took definitely don't do the carpet justice. It looks so much nicer! It also feels much better as well.

Here is the before:

And after:

Last night we also change out the fireplace doors. Here is the before:

And after:

The new doors are very basic and simple, but the brushed nickel matches all of the other hardware we have put in. Now our new ceiling fan just needs to come in...

creamy pesto chicken and bowties

Our dinner tonight was simple and delicious. I based my recipe off of one I found on allrecipes.com, but I didn't completely follow it, so here is mine:

Ingredients:

12 oz bowtie pasta

1 lb of chicken breasts, cubed

broccoli

3 tablespoons of butter

1 tablespoon of minced garlic

1 (10.75 ounce) can of cream of chicken soup

1/2 cup of milk

1 cup of pesto

parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Boil your pasta according to the instructions on the package.

2. Melt the butter in a large skillet. Saute garlic and broccoli. Add chicken and cook until no longer pink.

3. Add soup, pesto and milk. Bring to a boil. Continue to cook on low heat for about five minutes. Stir in drained pasta. Top with parmesan cheese and heat through.

I also had planned to add mushrooms, but unfortunately mine had gone bad. We decided asparagus might also taste good in the recipe.

Check out where we ate dinner tonight. Nothing like eating at a card table in your kitchen facing the wall. Hopefully tomorrow night our carpet will be installed and we can move all of our furniture back where it goes!

more shopping...

After breaking our borrowed microwave in less than a week, we finally purchased our own. Of course Chris came back with a nice one, instead of a little white cheapy thing that I expected, but it will last longer and we can always use it as a basement microwave, or something of that nature. Leftover Chinese food has never tasted so good!

I scored this sweet green bowl at Crate and Barrel's summer sale. Originally $66, I got it for $33! Still a good chunk of change, but I thought it was a good deal.

The hubby hung our entryway mirror this weekend. I absolutely love my mirror. Now I just need to figure out how to add some color to this table. I am thinking a green lampshade might be necessary.

I snagged these great little cubes at TJMaxx. They will be great if we need extra seating in a pinch. The idea is borrowed from John and Sherry over at This Young House.

My shower curtain count is now up to seven. I think I may have found a winner though. I'm liking the paisley print one on the top. Chris isn't so sure about it, but hopefully he changes his mind!

This adorable little lamp also came from TJMaxx. I think it goes with my gray room perfectly! Now I just need to clean out all the random junk that has ended up in here, and find some other furniture so I can make use of this cute little thing!

Oh and after being at my parent's house all weekend, I came home to find this in my living room:

We are getting our new carpet on TUESDAY! I am so excited. I guess I'll just have to deal with all of my furniture being in one room for a couple days...

I am the proud owner of...

brand new stainless steel Whirlpool appliances!! Ok, I don't actually have them in my possession yet (they aren't being delivered until July 18th!) but I did purchase them. I cannot wait to have a big shiny fridge.

Now I just have to work on getting the kitchen that will fit these appliances! We got our quote for cabinetry from Home Depot, and I think the 42 inch upper cabinets are going to be a bit out of reach. We are still waiting on a second quote from another guy... maybe he will be able to work out a better deal for us.

Personally, I just want to figure out what we are doing so I can start ripping out the old stuff, and find out whether or not the hardwoods in the kitchen can be saved!

baby steps...

We just hung another picture on the wall. I'm pretty proud of us, especially since we got it centered and level on the first try! Not to toot my own horn or anything :). I still feel like the table is missing something, but I haven't figured out exactly what that something is...

Slowly but surely we will get all of our artwork hung up!

shopping spree

Well first, I believe I forgot to mention that Saturday, my prissy little self mowed the lawn. Yes me. Maybe I shouldn't be bragging but really, who would have thought that I would actually mow the lawn. I'm sure anyone who saw me while I was doing it was laughing a lot, because I definitely struggled to get the mower around the yard. But I did it.

Now on to my shopping spree. Sunday morning I spent about $700 in two hours. Not bad, not bad at all! Ha ha, luckily I'm returning some of it so it will total closer to just under $600. Here is what I purchased:

- 3 lamps

- 5 shower curtains

- shower caddy

- laundry sorting bin

- ceiling fan

- fireplace doors

The ceiling fan and fireplace doors account for most of my bill, and unfortunately I had to order both so I can't show you those yet. But here is a look at my lamps and shower curtains.

All of the shower curtains have been narrowed down to these two:

One is more gray, and one is a taupe color. Chris likes the gray more, and I am perfectly ok with the color, but I'm not 100% sold on the shower curtain. I think it is a bit more graphic than I was going for. (This is my bathroom I wanted something girly!) But nonetheless I think it would be nice to if we keep the gray curtain to get a white vanity with some sort of gray marble top look.

And here are the lamps I scored for only $50 each at Pier 1. Some of the lamps we had been thinking of buying were $125 each!

This poor little guy didn't make the cut. I love this lamp, but it is just too short for everywhere that we need a lamp. I will be taking him back (I'm not quite sure why I've decided this lamp is a boy) and exchanging him for another one of the lamp pictured above. We are going to put two on the buffet and then hang a piece of artwork up.