August 29, 2012

Home reveal: Living and dining room

This is post long overdue! I finally got to take some pictures of our place in good lighting (not that they are professional by any means) and I'm inviting you in to see! Come on in...




(just pretend that ugly green tarp over the grill isn't there...)




This gallery wall is one of the things I was working on this past weekend. There are a couple frames that still need to be filled, and I may add a couple more frames on the bottom. There will be a post on the details of this wall coming soon :)


I just love the hallway!


Well there you have it - the work in progress that is our home! You can see why I loved the place so much. It has so many things on my wishlist: hardwood floors, good layout, and character! I loved it before we even furnished it, so I knew that was a good sign. We pretty much moved all of the same stuff from our apartment into this space and it's working well! We did have to buy the rug (found on Overstock), and I've bought a few knickknacks for those built-in shelves, which are not even close to being finished. Here's what we still have to do:

finish gallery wall
finish decorating built-ins
decide on curtains
find something for the wall behind dining room table
buy a longer chain and hook for the chandelier and center it over the table
possibly replace chandelier (to be replaced again when we leave, since we're renting)
do I need something on that big wall over the TV?

I'll be sharing the kitchen, patio, office, and guest room in the near future! Be sure to check out our painted master bedroom if you haven't yet :)

August 27, 2012

The weekend

via

Michael was gone this weekend for a guys' trip to the beach, so I made sure to have some plans for the weekend but also gave myself some time to just hang at home. Friday night was a laid-back night in with homemade pizza, wine, and a good friend. It was so what I needed after a long week! Saturday was the perfect day for sleeping in and then going to babysit my adorable 9-month-old nephew with a friend for the afternoon. That boy just rolls around all over the place and squeals with delight at the simplest things. It was so much fun!

Sunday I didn't make any plans and I absolutely loved it. I haven't had an entire day to myself in a long time, so it was wonderful to catch up on relaxing, spending time with the Lord, and working on some house projects I've been wanting to do since we moved in. I have tons to show you in the next week! Let's just say I got spray paint all over my arms and put a bunch of nails in the wall. I hope that doesn't give too much away :) Stay tuned!

August 22, 2012

Some things you may not know about me

So, my friend Christina from My Life, Laughs, and Love nominated me for The Liebster Award WEEKS ago, and due to all the craziness as of late, I haven't been able to take time to finish this post! I have finally written out 11 things about me, answered her questions, and come up with some of my own for the lovely bloggers below. This is pretty wordy (probably more than you want to read about me) so let's get to it!


The Rules

1. Create a blog post included 11 random facts about yourself
2. Answer the 11 random questions from the blogger who nominated you
3. Give this award to at least 5 blogs up to 11 and link to them in the post
4. Tell those people you nominated them
5. You cannot nominate the person who has nominated you
6. Remember to tag blogs with less than 200 followers


11 Random facts about me


1. I'm 5'2" and wear size 5.5 in shoes. It's never really bothered me, I actually kind of like being small. Except when shoe stores don't carry anything less than a size 6!

2. My favorite class in college was my freshman English class. I absolutely loved our professor and we read some pretty awesome novels. We did so much writing that semester and it was a ton of work, but it was one of the few college courses I actually got a solid "A" in. So why did I pursue a left-brained major like Accounting? I'm asking myself that question right now.

3. I am the oldest of 5 kids. Since I am naturally an introvert, I definitely need my space and alone time, but because I grew up in a big family I love having lots of people around and things going on (hence the social part). I've always thought I wanted to have a lot big family too but 5 may be just a little too many for me to handle. I'm realizing more and more how much work kids are!

3. I was homeschooled through the 4th grade. I have lots of memories from my elementary years but I probably couldn't tell you how old I was in each of them because my elementary years all sort of run together, since I didn't have different teachers and school years to mark the times. But I learned so much in those years. I developed a love for reading, which I kind of fell away from once I started going to school (go figure). But I wasn't one of those weirdos who didn't develop social skills - I played a TON with my siblings and all the neighborhood kids, and we constantly got together in homeschool groups to do field trips and group homeschooling. It was actually a lot of fun!

5. I am an INTJ. I think I am more of a social introvert than a true quiet introvert. You can take the test here to find out what you are!

6. I did show choir in high school. Like, full out glee club. I was lucky enough to go to school during a time when we had an amazing director and a really wonderful choir program with 5 different choirs to be a part of. I was in a show choir called Pizzazz and an all girls choir called Ladies Select. Our show choir did some really fun numbers - MJ's Thriller (we dressed up like zombies and everything), Shania Twain, songs from Rent and Wicked, just to name a few. We took big spring trips every year to compete in competitions in Florida, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Some of my favorite highlights and high school memories came from being a part of the show choir!

7. I don't like my feet. I feel like they always look fat. But my hands - I do like those!

8. Speaking of hands, I keep my nails short almost all of the time (no, I don't bite them).

9. My maiden name is Yantz - it's German. It's a little different and kind of weird, but I miss it sometimes. It's just not a name you hear everywhere, and that's kind of cool.

10. The countries I've visited outside of the US are Ghana, Venezuela, France, Italy, Dominican Republic, islands in the Caribbean, and Canada (do those last two even count?). I feel like writing these all down makes me want to do a blog post on each one... I'll have to get on that.

11. While I'm really excited to have babies someday, I'm most excited for them to be little kids - like ages 3, 4, 5, & 6. Those are my favorite ages because they are still in the "cute" stage and they are learning and growing so much, asking questions all the time and saying the funniest things!


Christina's 11 questions

1. If your job were to transfer you to a different location, ideally where would it take you?
I think it would be awesome if my job took me somewhere I wouldn't be brave enough to move to on my own. Honestly there are so many places I've been fascinated with lately that I can't pick just one! New York (thanks to this lady and How I Met Your Mother), Chicago, Denver, and London all make the list. I know some of them sound cliche but they are cliche for a reason - people must love them!

2. Do you bunch or fold your toilet paper?
Haha this one made me laugh! I definitely bunch it (and the hubs always complains that I use way too much, which I don't, he's just crazy).

3. What quality do you love most about yourself?
This one is tough for me! I think it would have to be that I'm a "doer." I like having things on my schedule, lists to check off, and projects to work on. However, I also see this as a fault sometimes. Sometimes I wish I was better at just "being" - sitting around and enjoying people without necessarily accomplishing something. So there's my backwards answer to that question :)

4. What is your going out drink-of-choice?
Usually a margarita will do the trick! They are the perfect combination of salty and sweet :) If I want something light I'll go with a vodka tonic.

5. If you won a shopping spree to any store, which would it be?
This is hard! If it was an unlimited shopping spree, it would have to be Nordstrom because they have the nicest clothes. But if I was on a limited budget it would be TJ Maxx!

6. What was your high school mascot?
We were the Spartans - Christina you are fully aware! Our colors were orange and blue, and then I proceeded to go to college where the colors were orange and maroon, so let's just say there is a LOT of orange in my t-shirt drawer!

7. Stilettos or wedges?
I'm really loving wedges lately! They are about 10x more comfortable and it really helps that they're in style now. I feel justified buying them because I know I'll wear them with more casual outfits because they're so comfortable :) (But I do love a good pair of pumps when I get really dressed up!)

8. Most embarrassing moment?
This may or may not be my most embarrassing moment but it's the first thing that came to mind. When I was 10 years old I was climbing trees with some neighbor friends, who happened to be boys. I jumped out of a tree wrong and landed weird on my foot so I was sitting on the ground making sure it was okay, and one of the boys said "Dang, you need to shave!"  I. was. mortified. That night I went home and without asking permission shaved my legs with my mom's razor. And that's why I started shaving at the young age of 10.

9. Favorite season?
When I was in school, summer was hands down my favorite season. I think it's still #1, but fall is coming in as a very close 2nd. My favorite things about summer are the long days and the hot weather! And I feel like everyone is generally much more relaxed in the summer months.

10. Who sent you your most recent text // what did it say?
From my mom: "I'll let you know when I hear something," referring to my cousin who had twin baby boys today!

11. Guilty pleasure?
Shopping for myself when I'm buying gifts for other people. I seriously do this all the time! If I go to a favorite store of mine to look for a present for someone else, I end up spending just as much time, if not more, browsing for myself. Even when I've already used up my shopping budget for the month! I always feel guilty doing it, but sometimes it pays off when I snag that random item that I really needed, which of course I found because I wasn't specifically looking for it (darn you, Murphy's Law!).


And now... the nominees!

Colleen @ Ordinary Tales
Megan @ Happy the Home
Mindy @ Handmade by Mindy
Heather @ Made to Live
Erin @ Life as a Losey
Sherri @ The Life of a Wife


My 11 questions for you

1. What is your current ringtone?
2. Favorite thing to do on a Friday night?
3. What do you usually have for breakfast?
4. Do you have any superstitions?
5. If you had to do it over again what would you study in school?
6. What TV shows are you into right now?
7. What's the last concert you went to?
8. What was your first AIM screen name?
9. Favorite birthday memory?
10. What was your first paying job?
11. If someone gave you $500 for no reason, what would you spend it on?


Are you still with me? Wasn't that fun?? I think I'm going to change up the rules a bit. If you are a reader of my blog and WANT to answer my questions but I failed to nominate you, please do! In a comment, an email, or do a whole blog post like I did! You can totally claim that I nominated you :)

August 21, 2012

Gone to the beach

We took a few days off over the last couple weeks to go spend vacation time with each of our families - Destin, FL with my family the first week and Ocean Isle Beach, NC with Michael's family this past week. This should explain why I've been MIA lately!

We swam. We played games. We ate delicious food. We caught up with family. We paddle-boarded & kayaked & played cornhole. We drove a lot. We made goofy faces with our favorite niece and nephews. We took long walks on the beach. We braved thunderstorms. We watched sunsets. Both trips were so nice and so needed. I'm so thankful for the time away from work and to have two wonderful vacations to end our summer!

Destin, FL
Ocean Isle Beach, NC

August 9, 2012

Home reveal: Master bedroom

Our place is starting to come together! We finally had a full weekend to work on some projects last weekend, and we got SO much done, thanks to Michael's parents helping us out all day Saturday. We organized all of our closets, cleared out all the boxes, and painted our bedroom! I know it would make more sense to show off our living room or kitchen first, but I thought I'd share pictures of the master bedroom since it's the only room that's mostly "done" right now. It's not going to seem much different from the way it looked in the apartment, but I really think painting the walls made a huge difference and it really feels so much more homey now. This is what it looked like before we painted...



And here's what it looks like now!


The color is "Sparkling Spring" by Behr.





My dresser is not pictured because I still need to arrange some pretty things on it, and I need to figure out something to decorate the top of Michael's highboy dresser, but it feels so nice to have one room that feels totally homey and lived in! Painting makes a huge difference, and now I'm wanting to do it all over the house! I guess that's the downside of renting - I'll have to repaint it all when we leave so I don't want to go overboard. However, I'm glad that we put in a few hours' work to really change the space. My motto for our new place is to truly move in and make it ours because we never know how long we'll live there.

As you read this, we're on vacation down in Florida, so I'm off to soak up some family time and get my tan on! Hope everyone is having a good week!

August 3, 2012

The last couple weeks in instagram


The rental truck for 1/2 of the move (we did it in two parts on different days. totally a great idea). Note the "rent me" sign - no, you cannot rent my husband, just the truck.
2  These terrible toes have sadly gotten worse since this picture. They just haven't been a priority I guess. Definitely need to fix them this weekend.
A sunset from our back patio - not edited! Isn't it amazing?
Found this guy in our kitchen... went to sweep him out and found out he was still alive! (when the hubby wasn't home of course) Let's just say I won the battle and I'm pretty darn proud of myself.
Homemade iced coffee - mm mm good!
6  A quick trip to the beach in SC last weekend. It was so fun to see my family and this little cutie!
7  Michael finally picked out a grill and got it put together. We had friends over last night and grilled kabobs out on the patio. It was perfect!
8  I love that we now live in an older neighborhood and actually see some wildlife - this little bunny was hopping around in my neighbor's front yard.
A sneak peek of something in the house that actually looks put together! Once I have some more areas of the house ready I'll have some great before + afters coming up!

Hope you all have a great weekend!