Ready for our new home!

We are closing in one more day!!!! I couldn't be any more excited! We have been getting the last of our things packed the last couple days which has also happened to coincide with this stomach virus I got. The nausea is making me completely miserable so packing has become very sporadic and is only getting done when I can stomach it(pun intended). But about 36 hours from right now we will be buying our first home and here it is...

On the list of things we want to get done early on planting grass seeds is definitely at the top. We want those big silky blades of grass that just begs for you to walk barefoot through the yard. I'm so excited for my little monster to get home from school on Tuesday and get to run around in our yard for the first time. I'm so excited for all the extra space.. And yay! For those enormous trees that will hopefully offer plenty of shade during the triple digit temperature days we get during at least half the summers here!

Get Outta Town!

Awful! That is the only way I can sum up Thursday for us. After finding out that our close date is being pushed another week because the final inspection had a couple issues and our loan originator woman is a super procrastinator. We found this out a whopping 18hrs before we were supposed to close, which was also right in the middle of my 30min off between job one and job two. So I decided we needed a break and some time away from it all doing something to get us excited about this house again.

I've never been to Ikea, I've wanted to go for a couple years now but the closest one is 3 1/2 hours away. Yikes! Not a drive I want to make with my monster just to drag him around a store then trap him in a car again. But today was the day! Parker was in school and my mom agreed to pick him up for us and keep him til we got home. We drove the entire 3+ hrs there and the whole time Shane and I talked. We vented about the things that we were mad about with this home buying process, we spent some time talking about gross stuff making each other laugh for the first time since we got the crappy news, and we talked about the house and what we want to do once we do(finally!)get in there.

So I officially LOVE that store!!! I could spend days walking around in there. Since we need some furniture we spent time inspecting,testing, and deciding on what we liked best. But after that drive I wasn't about to leave empty handed so this is what we got:

-A grey and white fleece throw that Parker loves

- a Gurli throw in white/cream that will go with our current sofa(and hopefully make it look prettier) and our future grey sleeper sectional we found today

- a pack of 3 cork trivets

-2 packs of Hären wash clothes

-Tons of Tekla dish towels that I'm considering doing a DIY monogram on

-a Rationell utensil divider for the new kitchen

-a Patrull alligator bath mat to keep the monster from slipping in the tub, although I'm not sure if he's gonna think he's too big for it so it may go to my nephew instead

-A couple ice cube tray that are shaped to make cubes that fit down in drink bottles

-4 white Nyttja frames for 5x7's

-2 white Virserum frames for those 8x10's I have coming

-a 2 pack of white Kassett magazine/paper holders 

Overall a great day that gave us time to just talk and spend time together getting excited about the house again instead of dwelling on the fact that we aren't gonna be moving in this weekend. Shane went with me because he loves me and wanted me to be in a better mood but when we left he was telling me how we need to come back and how there were things he didn't get to test out because we ran out of time. I hope everyone else had day that was better than the one before it!

Treadmills, and classes, and scales oh my...

So getting my footing in the gym again has been hard. What's been the most hard has been accepting the fact that I have to sacrifice one or more of my few precious hours of sleep a day to make it these workouts happen. I've been through that part before so it is quickly becoming second nature to work and then knock out a workout before following that up with going back to work. It's also hard for me to step on the scale and see the number jump up in 2-4 lb in a week. This is also something I've dealt with before. I know my body and I know that I tend to gain muscle really easily and quickly, a lot more quickly than I lose fat but as always the pounds are now starting to drop as my body begins to get the idea of what I'm putting it through.
Here is what surprised me and what is really hard...I'm sore. I'm very sore, can't-reach-up-to-pull-back-your-hair-legs-tremble-when-you-walk sore. And I'm not sore for just a day, I've been sore for a week and its finally getting better now but I don't know if I'm just over-doing it or if its just that I'm older and more sleep deprived.
I'm definitely ready for my body to get a little stronger so all these power pump and Pilates classes can quit kicking my booty!

This is why I love Shutterfly

I get emails from Shutterfly almost daily with coupon codes for all kinds of their products. Today I got a "today only" code for 2 free 8x10 prints and I jumped at this one. With tons of wall space coming our way in less than a week(YAY!!!!!!) I'm gonna need some photos to cover those walls with. I ordered these two photos in 8x10 matte finish

They are both pictures I took on my phone but I love how my little monster looks in these B&W snapshots. I love how there's no posing and it's just him hanging out. These pictures of him feel very natural to me like I could look past the picture and find him laid out on my lap on the sofa or curled up in a blanket listening to Dad read us a book just as he is in the pictures.

And possibly best of all, here is my receipt...

gotta love that total :)

 

 



Houndstooth vinyl

eHoundstooth.com

So...I'm now more obsessed with the Cricut  than I was before I bought one. My baby turned 8 this week(I know that means he doesn't really count as a baby anymore but I have a hard time with the realization that he is now closer to being a teen than a baby so for now I'm still calling him my baby especially this week). His class does posters featuring the birthday kid of the week and used my Cricut to make his. I cut his name out in vinyl and then used some random paintings he did to cut out the other words and letters.  Anyway moving on, at least where I work about 3/4 of the nursing population there use clipboards to corral all the paperwork we seem to constantly have being thrown our way. On the clipboard of one of my coworkers there was a lovely little elephant cutout of black and white houndstooth vinyl(Roll Tide) and I decided right then and there that I needed some of this STAT! I have looked and looked to try to find it and have come up with nada. There is lots of houndstooth vinyl out there in crazy colors but I can't seem to track down the standard black and white kind in a roll and not a 12x12 sheet. My google skills are failing me and I've been wanting this to have on hand for when we move because my lovely little 8 yr old monster has selected a room in the new house that is already red and I want to do a monogram for his wall(clearly not in the lettering above but maybe something a little more masculine...). Ughh...I need to hurry up and find this stuff so I can quit thinking about the fact that I need it! If anyone knows where I can find some and you want to maybe drop me a hint for where to look it would be much appreciated :)

see how cute!!!! found this here

 

 



Ready to DIY to the extreme

I'm so ready for us to get in our house and get it decorated. Unfortunately our close date has been changed which is going to put it "on or before" March 22 which also happens to be the day we are getting married(wow this March is busy!). So with this new date we are going to have all of about 1 night to get stuff moved in and enjoy our house before heading off for some fun Honeymoon vacation time in the mountains.

So before the end of the month rolls around I'm trying to wrap my head around what colors I want to use and how I want our house to look/feel. This is where I'm getting some inspiration...

 

I L.O.V.E yellow and grey and I think something like this would make a happy and fresh room to spend time relaxing in.

I really, really want to get a new sofa because the one we have is Shane's bachelor pad one that while comfortable, it is super ugly. I'm definitely hesitant to get a white sofa because all I can think about is little fingers covered in Cheetos orange being wiped all over it.

 

I like how eclectic feeling this room is

 

I like a lot of the ideas here from House Pretty

 

I'm so unsure of what direction I'm eventually going to go with.

 

So I think we might go with this Ektorp sofa in Svanby Gray from Ikea because it's neutral and I think it would fit in well with any direction I decide to go.

I think it will hide stains much better than the white.

I'm ready to order this and get it in the house ASAP and get the old ugly sofa out

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Command Center Inspiration

 After adding additional jobs to my schedule it has been hard for me to get into the swing of my new routine. After a month at my second job my hours have doubled there from what I had originally planned. I have no complaints as I am very happy there and couldn't imagine working for any nicer people or with such amazing co-workers but it has made it difficult for me to continue with my normal routine. Now that a month has gone by and I'm getting the swing of things I have incorporated the gym back into my routine and hopefully will soon be doing the same with my meal plans/grocery store visits. It will be a very happy day for me when I am able to get some semblance of a normal routine back in my life but I feel like that is still going to be a couple months away. Once we get moved in to the new house I will have a lot more kitchen than I do now. With all this new counter space comes a nice little nook between the door that leads to the garage and where the fridge is. This nook I'm hoping will become a command center of sorts to help keep this crazy little schedule of mine running as smoothly as possible. I'm gathering inspiration for this and can't wait to put all these ideas together to make something that works for us. Here is where I have been getting ideas so far...

This is from The Handmade Home and while my nook doesn't offer this much wall space I like all the organization going on here

 

I will have a cabinet above the counter I'm planning on using and this is an option I'm definitely liking. Of course I will have to find a way to fit a chalkboard in there somewhere but I like the idea of being able to have a space for tings I can close the door on. Unfortunately the link to this site was bad but according to pinterest it is from Interior Design Ideas

 

This next one is impressive and elaborate and I might possibly have to spend more time on it organized than it would save me in the end by keeping me organized. However there are several pieces of this one that might work for our family, one I like from first glance is the bin for coupons and receipts. I have had several requests for me to start couponing hard core again from both family and friends and this would be a good place to stash the Sunday inserts til I have time to cut them up. Also having a place for us to drop receipts might be good for us with the new budgeting we plan on doing and may help us keep track of our spending. Tis one also had a corrupt link and so no reference for this one either, sorry, but it appears to come from One Creative Housewife.

So that's where I'm at so far. If anyone has a command center in their home that would like to share tips on what works or what to avoid I would appreciate any input you can give!

 

 

 



Hot Off the Press!!

While going through my email I came across a deal from Shutterfly for 10 free 5x7 cards. I knew the quality would be good because I order all our family year books through them. I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to scoop up some change of address cards to send out to some friends and family. This is the one I eventually settled on. It is impossible to get a good picture of all three of us(especially since Shane HATES being in pictures) I chose to do a simple card with no picture.

 

Our address and phone numbers have been blacked out but you get the idea. Can't wait for these to arrive.

 



Easter Egg Burlap Door Sign

About a year and a half ago I made my first burlap sign. It was a football and it got thrown out during our last move. So with our plans to close on the house on March 22nd we should be in our house for Easter. Our new house will have a black door which will showcase a bright new sign perfectly so I bought some burlap(I bought 1 yard for $2 that I used for our burlap candle holders and this project) and busted out the paint.

Oh yes, I definitely painted this on a lid for one of the bins we are using to move with and much to Shane's happiness I was able to get all that paint that bled through off using my Mrs. Meyer's counter cleaner. I free-handed the cutting and the painting which led to a little unevenness but I'm ok with that. I wasn't really in a perfectionist mood when I was up at 2AM painting because I couldn't sleep. The next morning when it was all dry I glued the back on and stuffed it full of burlap scraps and plastic bags and this is what I ended up with...

Once we get in the house I'll stick some craft wire on there with some pretty ribbon and we will have our first holiday décor for the new house! Yay!!!

I'm so ready to get in there and do some holiday decorating! Ummm...what holiday comes next?

 

 

 

Finally Got a Cricut

I have a friend who is allowing me do decorate her kids bathroom for her and we made another trip to Hobby Lobby today to pick up some frames to hold some pics of her kiddos in the bathtub when they were toddlers. While there I stopped to eyeball the Cricut AGAIN! This has been a normal occurrence for me every time I have gone to Hobby Lobby for the last 6 months. I've also been talking about buying one for months. Finally I bit the bullet and bought the Expression 2. I almost threw up knowing how much I was going to pay for it but my sweet friend convinced me that I deserve to get something I really want because that's what I work so hard so often for. She also gave me the green light to practice my vinyl designs on her house. I'm very excited to see what fun projects I can make with it. Here's some ideas I like...

 

Knife block from Johnny in a Dress

 

 

I want to do this to our mailbox just as soon as we close on the house, soooo much cuter than the yucky options at Lowe's. Found this one on pinterest but the link was no good.

 

Labeling bins for organization from Expressionsvinyl

 

Pretty canisters will look great on all that counter space we will have soon. These are from Vinyl Decor 'n More

 

So ready to do this to the door! You can find this over at Thrifty Decorating

 

So ready to get started on all these projects and more once close at the end of March.

xoxo