Saturday, November 24, 2012

Holiday Decorating

 Our Christmas trees in the living room and basement.



Our Christmas village...through we've added to it since this photo was taken, our stockings over the fire place in the living room, and some of the exterior lights we hung. Next year I'll focus more on the outside. This year was more finishing touches around the house.




It's been a hectic two weeks preparing for Richard's family to visit for Thanksgiving-gathering recipes, shopping for all the groceries and having the house look somewhat holiday-esque for Christmas too.

Overall, I'm sad it's over and that work is looming in about 36 hours, but I'm looking forward to our trip to my parents for Christmas next month. The good news is, I've got all my shopping and wrapping almost done!

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

A few wedding photos too...


My friend since middle school, who is now the Orchestra Director in our hometown schools, played for us as a wedding gift.

Just married!

Bridal party


My family


I loved my bouquet




Small and intimate, 18 guests



First dance

Second reason you go cake tasting is to try your own cake b/c you don't get a chance to eat it the night of!

Our rings and my flowers

Flowers and shoes

Our guests
My dress and the cool hanger my sister bought me

So I loved my bouquet so much I went through a local company Freeze Frame to have my flowers professionally hydrated, dried and arranged into a display case. The colors are a little off, but that was expected. Haven't picked it up yet...been waiting since May! They are so busy it's like a 24 week turnaround!

Long time no blog!

Hope everyone has been well and had a smooth transition moving in to their new homes! We've been in our house for almost 6 months now, and it's been fabulous! We spent the summer organizing and prioritizing purchases to finish rooms. We still have a lot of progress to go, but I'm very happy with where we're at...not to mention stoked for the upcoming holidays and all the decorating we get to do :)

Other than that, we've stayed fairly busy-finally took our honeymoon to Gatlinburg (absolutely gorgeous), visited and hosted family and friends, and just enjoying life!

Thought I'd post some updated pictures to share-

Painted a blue accent wall in the bedroom

New living room furniture +console table that houses a few of our wedding photos.

New big screen tv and Richard not even watching!

Same blue accent wall in the basement-tried to be a little cohesive with the decor throughout the house with the blues and greens

Decorated for fall

Finally got storage racks for all our "extra" stuff in the basement. Best part is my new Christmas tree. I was a little excited when it was delivered (scary experience buying a tree online, but it's gorgeous and I would do it again in a heartbeat), hence it's put together and I started eyeballing some of my decor.

The most recent addition-Richard's new workspace. So much nicer compared to the little desk that barely held his monitors before. Eventually we're going to add a nice bookshelf, lateral file and maybe even a recliner...if he's lucky :)

A lot of our guests prefer to watch a movie or tv before going to bed in their own privacy, so we added our old living room tv to the larger of the guest bedrooms.

Finally got a bed for the guest bed #2. I'm excited our siblings don't have to sleep on the couch or an air mattress when they come to visit now. BTW if anyone is in the market for a decent bed at a great price, try Samsclub.com! This bed doesn't come with the traditional boxspring, but rather a smart base. It lifts the bed off the floor 14", provides a lot of support and creates massive amounts of storage space underneath. Oh did I mention it's pretty comfy too? <3

Finally framed my treasured graduation gift from my old nursery school kids.

Decorated for fall again

I can't not have pumpkins, but I've had my fair share of sensory experiences with them at work, so I decided to go a none traditional route from carving and wrapped white lights around them. Look pretty cool driving by at night too.
One thing I don't have a picture of is the amazing storage/organization system we hung in the garage. I love that we can pull both cars (his a luxury size sedan and mine an SUV) in to the garage with space to walk around. Everything is up off the floor and easily accessible.

Anyways, hope you enjoy the update, and have a great HALLOWEEN!

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Home...Is where the military sends you

It's been a CRAZY three weeks. Richard was amazing, getting all of our small stuff moved in, the surround sound systems hooked up and all the basics functioning in time for when my parents came to town. They were so gracious coming in a few days early to help wrap up a lot of little projects (and some big ones too) before all our guests started arriving for the wedding last Friday. We got ceiling fans hung and our morning room hung, the rooms decorated and drapes hung, stocked up on cleaners, food, and necessities, and the men cut a hole in our wall to open up more storage under the basement stairs!

Since we were just trying to catch our breath after everyone left Saturday afternoon, we re-engaged today to accomplish a few more things. I think we're going to attack the deck tomorrow evening for staining.

Overall, the house is fantastic! Only a few glitches here and there, but everyone with Ryan has been so helpful.

We have flowers, flags, and beautiful green grass.

 L-Morning room   C-Love the kitchen, probably one of my favorite rooms in the house   R-New storage system in entry way off kitchen to garage.

 Family room. We'll be getting new couches for this room and these will be moved to the formal living room at the front.

Picture is not wanting to center correctly, but this is the new addition in the basement. My dad added some sweet shelves and peg board for Richard to organize a lot of our tools.

 L- On the front side of the basement is Richard's office, and "I love me" wall. We'll be adding to it and hopefully getting him a bigger desk eventually. R- Our new sectional and the skyline print of Buffalo I found.

 Media wall with Richard's pride and joy. We decided to pick up some track lighting from IKEA to add to the inside of the entertainment center. It changes colors too!

 Guest bedrooms 1 and 2- my Arkansas room is staged right now with old living room tables and an air mattress. Still need to hang my wall shelves and make my Fayetteville wall of photos.

 Master bedroom and animals. Riley (our cat) loves the house and all the new hiding places.

 Master closet and my organization system for shoes/jewelry. I can't express how nice it is to be able to see all my clothes at once and not just 1/3 of them.

 Guest bed 3 and bathroom. We have a lot of space to fill, but plenty of time to do it

I'll post some wedding pictures soon! We should have our professional photos back in a few weeks. Hope all is well with everyone! and congratulations to all who have closed, broken ground, or are making progress!