Around the House

I FINALLY got my storage system for my Pocket Scrapbooking cards from Stamp n' Storage. It didn't take that long to get here honestly, but I've been spoiled by Amazon Prime! I love it so much. It's made from a lovely birch & sturdy and handsome. Even though I was tired after work, I made all my label cards (which I did by adding tabs to grid cards), and put them in the slots! I feel this will make finding the "perfect" cards a lot easier!

Adam has recently gotten into Lego Dimensions and Disney Infinity. He put these figurines on top of the entertainment center! HA. I don't know how I feel about this, but they are pretty darn cute. #gamerwifeproblems

I bought this Beauty & the Beast cup, "Chip," at the little Beauty & the Beast store next to Gaston's Tavern in Magic Kingdom. I loved it so much, that I couldn't bare to drink from it. I'm using it to hold utensils in my craft room. With this addition, this is my new favorite corner in the house! 

Adam's Aunt Ronda gave us this blanket she had made for us at Christmas. It is made of clothing from Adam's grandmother. It is such a wonderful gift and a great way to remember this wonderful lady. Super warm too, that is a plus!

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Squirrel!

Lately, Link has been tortured by our backyard squirrels. They have been running up and down the roof, storing nuts in the lip of our chimney. I suppose this is to get ready for the winter, I'm convinced is not going to come this year.

Today, he might have succeeded in his attempts to scare them (or at least distract them), as one squirrel FELL into the chimney.

This afternoon I got an email from Adam while I was working, entitled FYI. When I opened it, it said,"Just FYI, there is a squirrel in our chimney, so I lowered a rope down, to give it a way to escape." That is one of the oddest e-mails I've ever received. 

Adam was pretty sure the rope trick worked, as the scrambling sounds quit.  But tonight we had to double check the chimney to make sure the squirrel had left.

I walked into the kitchen to find Adam having made a chair barrier, which lead out the patio door. I guess this was a road map for the squirrel just in case he came barreling down Christmas vacation style.

Link was, of course, standing guard near by (a.k.a. being useless), as Adam messed around up there with a broom. Luckily, we suffered no squirrel attacks, he had indeed left the chimney, and now I know Adam is a modern day Macguyver with his whole rope trick.

Although I should have already known this about him, considering the whole incident was reminiscent of the mouse in the window incident of 2011!  

This is home-ownership at its finest. 

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It's Christmas, All Over Again

We have now been in our home a year and a half (say what?!?), and I think the one thing I love most about being a home owner is decorating for Christmas. We don't have a ton of stuff yet, but little by little we are adding to our collection. And we are planning to hit up some stores after Christmas to stock up on more decor next year. I love that Adam is just as in love with Christmas and decorations as I am.

This year we again strung lights outside, and hope to do more next year. But it truly looks lovely. We put out Adam's childhood Christmas village collection that I love! Link got his own stocking this year, and I decked out the table with a sparkly reindeer and the wine glasses I painted a few weeks ago.

And this year I had the idea to string lights and garland up the stairwell. It looks pretty magical I think.

And my favorite part of Christmas decorations is of course the tree and the ornaments. We typically add a few each year to mark memories or from our trips. This year we have Link's first Christmas, my half marathon finisher medal, travels to Harry Potter World/Carsland/Disney, and our first Christmas in our new home ornament that Adam's mom gifted us last year. 

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When the Crypt goes Creak, and the Tombstones Quake

I bought the Legacy Collection Disneyland CD when I returned from Disneyland last month because I'm a nerd like that. And one of my favorite songs  on it is  Grim, Grinning Ghosts from The Haunted Mansion ride. My favorite line is, "When the Crypt goes Creak, and the Tombstones Quake...."

I just love Halloween! But with Adam being out of town for two weeks followed by our whirlwind trip to Disneyworld last weekend, we have been delayed in getting our decor out. But we finally did last night, and I'm lovin' it!

While many items are the same we had last year, I tried to mix them up in new ways. We draped the Halloween lights over the stairwell, and now I have our foyer table to put the decor on. I'm also really loving our new fall table setting. So festive.

I can't wait to get the pumpkins next week and carve them up, that is my favorite part of Halloween!

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Painting My Hobby Room

Last weekend, Adam and I went to Lowes to buy paint to finally get rid of the obnoxiously bright purple color in my hobby room, that we inherited when we bought the house.The paint color I picked was called beehive yellow, as yellow is my favorite color. We had the intention to paint this Saturday morning.

On Friday, I finished up my work week in the afternoon, and I actually ended up going out to a dinner and a movie with my mom. So I got home fairly late, and I was pretty tired. But Adam got a wild hair, and he decided we should just paint that night instead. I thought he was crazy, it was already 10:30! I protested. He said he could do it all by himself, but that would make me feel guilty and lazy. So paint we did. He won that round! And I kind of temporarily, totally hated for him for it. Because I was tired, and I'm not nice when I'm tired.

Adam had already moved out all the furniture by the time I got home, and he was finishing up with the painter's tape. He kept putting it on his head, which amused me because it looked like a fez. When I told him that, all he could say was, "Fez's are cool." Linky and I got to work helping Adam by taking late night selfies. Although Linky didn't stick around long, because as soon as we got loud with the plastic drop cloths, he got scared, and went downstairs to sleep. He is scared of loud noises. And plastic. And kitchen aid mixers/dishwashers/and dryers. And don't forget big, affectionate poodles.

It is definitely tough to paint when you are uber tired, but we managed to get that first coat done with plans to do the second one in the morning. I felt somewhat high and somewhat sick, when we headed off to bed. I woke up early the next morning, and I started the second coat while Adam slept.

We ended up running out of paint and needing to buy more to finish up. This was crazy because we had painted our guest room, which is much bigger, with the same amount of paint and they very same brand, and we had a ton left over. But that bright, bright purple was sooo difficult to cover. But we managed to finish up, and I love the results.

I have to say I'm glad that we won't be painting again for quite a long time! And I think if it's a room much bigger than this one, we will hire someone. I can't wait to start the decorating process now that it is painted, I'm going for a white, grey, and yellow theme. It will be the perfect space for me.

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Around the House

Just a few house projects we have going on around here:

I have been looking for the perfect lamp to put on the nightstand in our Nautical guest room for a while now, and I finally found this light blue shell lamp at a favorite local store, Bargain Jungle. I love, love, love it. 

We bought a lovely table for our foyer area. I'm using it to store my work out stuff (weights, yoga mats, and yoga block). As well, as all my photo albums. I really like how it looks in there, and it just goes perfectly with my much loved rainy day painting.

I wanted to take on the small project of decorating our downstairs bathroom/laundry room. It is a small room, with an alcove area (with no door for the washer/dryer). Since it is the main bathroom people use when they come over to visit, I wanted it to look nice, and not just be the laundry room.

I had gotten a set of 12 vintage Disneyland attraction art prints off ebay for a really good price a few weeks ago. I spent a good deal of time with all 12 prints spread out on the floor, trying to figure out which 4 would go best together, as they were all various colors (I also knew I had to use the Peter Pan one, as that ride is my favorite)!

I got the prints hung, and Adam and I went to Lowes on Saturday to buy a curtain, so we could close off the laundry room area when guests come over. I picked a light blue curtain, as all the prints have a little blue in them. I'm so pleased with how it turned out! It looks so much prettier in there, and the Disney prints are just so, "me." By the way, it's super hard to get a representative picture of this room, as it's so small. But I hope you can get the idea anyway.

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Tis the Season for Holiday Decor

One of the things we are most excited about with being new homeowners is decorating for the holidays. So we spent the majority of the weekend decorating for Christmas. We have big plans for Christmas this year. Our nieces, Cassie & Kayla, Kayla's fiance, and Cassie's best friend are coming in from Texas later on this week for an early Christmas celebration. This is so special because we haven't been able to do a family Christmas all together in 4 years. We just can't wait.

The first step in decorating was to put out some outdoor holiday lights. We bought some icicle multicolored lights, and we then wrapped some solid lights around the two columns. We found a real wreath, and we hung it above the garage. Adam did such a good job putting up the lights, I'm so proud of him. He was my own personal Clark Griswold. We couldn't do all we wanted to do this year because we were working on a budget. But next year we want to add more lights to the second story, as well as around the windows. However, I think it is a gorgeous start.

When we were in Wisconsin over Thanksgiving, Adam was able to bring home the Christmas village he had been collecting since he was a child. Don't they just look gorgeous on the fireplace? I absolutely love it. We have been talking a lot about expanding his collection.  Even with the lights on, they just look excellent sitting above the stockings for the kids. And yes we call my nieces and company the kids, even if they are young adults. 

We added several indoor touches, and this is just a sampling. We actually got the poinsettia place-mats from a friend as a going away gift when we left California, and I thought adding a real poinsettia would make a lovely table setting. I love to decorate the stove area for some reason, I'm a sucker for decorative salt and pepper shakers (love these polar bears ones). I also like how the garland on the stairs turned out, next year I want to add some lights on the stairs as well. 

Of course, Christmas is not Christmas without a tree. And this one sure is pretty!

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Our Nautical Guest Room

I am so excited to post a few picture of our guest room in our new home! I have to say I really love how the room turned out, as I have wanted to do a a nautical themed room for quite a while. I will say however I learned that it is hard to photograph a bedroom! I couldn't get the light in the room to work for me, and I just wish I could do a 360 of the entire room instead. That being said, I think the pictures give a nice taste of the room.

The first thing we did with our guest room was paint it Roadster Blue (the color is somewhat brighter than it is in the pictures). I am pleased with the color, and I think it is perfect for the nautical feel. I was also super proud of us because the paint job turned out awesome! 

I had bought the two prints (We Have This Hope as an Anchor for our Soul & Not All Who Wander are Lost) from Etsy a while back.  One of my favorite pieces in the room is this Old World Vintage Map Canvas from Wayfair.  In the corner, I hung a boat painting that I created a few months ago. I decided to display some of my travel guides on the dresser, along with some of the snow globes I've collected over the years. I also picked up that little vase and fake flowers from hobby lobby.

While decorating the guest room, I learned the difference between a comforter and a duvet cover. When I ordered this old world style duvet cover, I was shocked when what seemed like a thin sheet arrived in the mail. I soon learned that a duvet cover is what you can put your comforter in! I love this cover. It is so beautiful.  

I got the idea to blow up a vintage map and crop it into 6 different prints from this blog. I chose to do a map of Amsterdam because that is the first overseas trip that we took together. That city is so special to us. The other canvas is a photograph that I took on that same trip. On the nightstand, there are some model ships that Adam had bought on Catalina Island, and I got the lighthouse at Hobby Lobby.

The massive painting by the closet is a family heirloom that my Great, Great Aunt had in her home. It is nice that it now belongs to us, and that we have a lovely place to display it. I also really liked this Welcome Friends sign with the lighthouse from hobby lobby.  I added some small touches like this pin-up girl light switch cover and light house fan pull. I also love the cheesiness that is the lighthouse hanging off the cord for the LIGHT, not the fan. Get it? 

We are so happy to have a designated room for guests now. We have never had that before. A few weeks ago, my mother-in-law got to be the first person to stay in the room! I just can't wait to host even more loved ones so we can show off our little room.

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Painting the Guest Room

Guest Room Before

It has been a little over a week since we closed on our house, and we have been keeping ourselves busy! We have gone over there nightly taking odds and ends, getting furniture deliveries (a new washer & bedroom suite oh la la), and just working on getting out of this apartment as soon as possible. I am loving the feeling I get every time I walk into our home. It just feels right.

One of the first items on our home to do list was/is to paint the upstairs bedrooms. Neither Adam and I have ever painted before. I was not that nervous, as I always go by the mantra, "People more stupid than me have done this before." But Adam was so freaked out! He called his mom for advice a million times, and he spent many nights stressing about it. He even told me the most scary part of moving and buying the home for him was having to paint!

My biggest concern was choosing the paint color. 

We got up bright and early Saturday morning to get painting, and I got to to do the inaugural paint roll! Honestly, it was not near as hard as we thought it would be. Of course, we made a few mistakes. We didn't wear booties on our shoes. I tripped over the can of paint, spilling a 4th of it (thank goodness for the drop cloth), and we even got a drop or two on the carpet (we got it out). But when it was done, I was pleased with of our hard work.

Adam was not so sure. It took him 24 hours and seeing it completely dry for him to appreciate it. Yesterday, he called and left me a voice mail, saying the room still looks awesome. That made me smile, as he is so critical of his work.

Guest Room After

We took the guest room from a bright, shiny blue to a matte, darker blue. I really love how it turned out, and every time I'm at the house, I have to stand in the room a minute and admire it. It is the first home improvement project we have done together, which is why I am so proud.

I can't wait to get this guest room all put together, so we can start hosting our friends and family!

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