{When the Paint Dries......}: 2011

Yes, No, Maybe, So......

So I wish I could say that we have everything moved into our new place.....

but we don't.

Because we didn't close yesterday as planned.

Long story short, the bank didn't get their paperwork done in time.

GRRRRRRRR!!

We will NEVER be dealing with them again, EVER!

Not only did the both of us take time off of work, we also had a truck booked, people ready to help us and a whole weekend to get everything done.

Now we are cramming that whole weekend into a Monday. One little lonely Monday.

We have five days to get everything over to the new house, clean the old apartment and do the walk-through with the landlord. Yay.

I wish I could say that I am taking this all with a grain of salt, but I'm not.

I'm dealing better with it today, cause what else am I going to do? lol

So anyway everything should be going down on Monday.....hopefully :)

What I am Learning about Packing

You can never have enough packing tape. I have used about 4 rolls so far.
Things never fit in a box the way you want them too.
As soon as you tape a box close you will find something that you forgot to put it.
Setting a box on the bed and packing into it may seem like a good idea until you try to move the box.
I will definitely be visiting the chiropractor after moving all of these boxes.
I am not as great a duster as I thought I as.
Some stuff is hard to throw away and some stuff is easy too.
I had this great idea to number each box and take a pic of what was in the box and i could refer back to the number.....and then i realized how much time that would take and I decided against it.
Sharpie markers are your friend.
If you decide to write 'CG' on a box you better remember what 'CG' stands for.
In a small apartment its not so much the packing, but where you put the boxes after packing.
My poor dogs are so tired of jumping over and sneaking around boxes

Why I'm So Glad to be Moving!

More space
A yard for the dogs
Not as close to creepy people
Pretty sure the house across the street sells drugs
I can decorate anyway I want
Hopefully no more creepers watching me as I walk the dogs
SPACE!
I can have people over and actually entertain
No more lugging the groceries up steps
Being able to have a sit down meal at an actual table
I could put a Christmas tree in more then one room, not that i will. :)
Not having to squeeze in between the washer & dryer in the hallway anymore
Our own parking spaces, no more parallel parking
Having room to spread out my crafts/scrap booking
Room to exercise (cause i do that so often lol)
A kitchen that isn't the size of a closet :)
I can have a dishwasher!

2 weeks!!

I am soooo excited to be moving!! Our closing date is two weeks from today!! Woooohooooo!!

And I have started packing.

It stinks.

I have forgotten how much I despise packing.

Its just so............NEVER ENDING

Honestly I didn't think that we had so much, and I know that we really don't, but it just seems to be taking awhile to put it all in boxes.

I have been trying to pack one or two boxes here and there, whenever i have time, in between jobs, on weekends, half days off, and at night :)

I am reminded of all the times I have moved with my family and the times that Nate has moved and I don't miss it at all.

BUT it will all be worth it once we are in the house.

And then i can unpack!!! :)

Fallingwater Visit

Last week a good friend and i took a trip to Fallingwater,

we had been meaning to go for some time and decided we should

go before the weather starts to get cold. This is on

my 20 before 25 list and i was very anxious to see it.

Isn't it beautiful?

i mean fallingwater ;)

20 by 25

So I recently turned 24 and wanted to make a list of things that I would like to do before I turn 25. I always 'think' about making goals but this time I really want to stick with it. Some of them are small things and some are bigger (i'm not sure if 4 or 5 will happen but i hope so) So here are 20 things I want to do before my 25th birthday :)

Give blood as many times as possible (unable to start until july cause i was out of the country last year)
Visit New York City
Volunteer once a month
~~Find a new "grown up" job~~ started at a bank 7/5/11
~~Buy a house~~ pending.....hopeful closing date 9/23
~~Visit flea market in Rogers Ohio~~ 6/17/11
Lose 15-20 pounds
Start doing once a month cooking
Have 20 followers :)
Build a bigger stockpile and start donating
Try out geocaching
~~Visit falling water~~ 8/24/11 read about it here
Visit Andy Warhol museum
Go on a second cruise with my husby
Slowly wean fast food out of my life :(
Attempt menu planning
Cook at home more
Become more active
Learn more about blogging
Learn how to play golf

So i making a little headway on my list, things have been really busy lately but that really isn't an excuse. hopefully the rest will happen, still have about 7 months, i'm really surprised the biggest two are done already! well, close to being done :)

Inspiration

First Year Anniversary Photo Shoot!

So this post is like two months late. Oops.

I thought it would be really cool to have photos taken every year around the time of our anniversary. Which could get quite pricey but my wonderful and talented sister was nice enough to do it for a donation and lunch :) A nice perk of having a large family.

We had a certain location in mind, but whenever we got there they were setting up for a wedding.....so we ended up taking them where we had gotten our engagement pics taken. And they turned out really nice!

setup: me ingorning him and him looking sad.

i am almost laughing though

ahhhh whats mine is yours and whats

yours is mine ;)

All photos taken by Alyssa Ann.

Easier said then done

We found a house!!

So i must have posted the right words in July about house hunting......

because, two days later....

We found a house!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can not tell you how excited I am!!!

So right now we are waiting, and waiting, and sending papers and waiting.......

the bid has gone through, the inspection and appraisal are done.....

closing date is September 23rd.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was trying to wait until some of the bigger stuff was done, I didn't want to get too excited and have it not work out.

Cause that would really, really suck. BUT it looks like everything is going to work.

The house is 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, far bigger then what we were hoping for! There is a dining room, and a small workshop area that I'm excited about for all my crafting projects :) and of course a yard for the dogs, I'm can't wait for them to be able to run around.

So I have started packing somewhat, I am trying to go through everything first so we aren't dragging any crap with us.

anyone have an advice on packing/moving?

my current plan is to clean the whole house on closing day and the move stuff the following two. I would like to be out of the apartment by the end of September to avoid another rent payment. Does my idea sound good? and remotely possible? we really don't own that much stuff.

Any advice is greatly appreciated! :)

PINTEREST!!!

So the latest greatest website?

PINTEREST!!!

this site is AMAZING!

at first whenever i got on it, i wasn't impressed, now that i have messed around with it for a (few) hours, I am in LOVE with it, and have gotten quite a few of my fans hooked as well.

basically what Pinterest is, is a great way to keep track of your favorites by 'pinning' them unto a 'board' the nice part is you can have all different boards with all different names.

Its a great way to keep track of websites you like without hogging up your favorites list.

to check this website out, you can follow me on Pinterest >, click the link below, if you want an invite just leave your email as a comment below and i'll get you one:)

House Hunting

My husby and I are currently house hunting.

How long have we been house hunting?

FOREVER!

We apparently have bad luck at house hunting.

If we like it. Its gone.

As soon as we call about a house.

Its sold.

Ok, so maybe there have been a few that haven't been sold, those have been horrible or too small.

Or, they just have one tiny little itty bitty thing wrong with them and the financing won't work out.

Maybe I'm suppose to be learning how to be content.

Which is HARRRDDD!!

Somedays I feel the walls of the this small apartment closing in on me.

I honestly didn't think that finding a house would be this hard and stressful.

I know that God will work everything out, but sometimes its just hard to see it.

Sooo its back to square one (again)!

So true!

Bucket List

Visit every state
Visit every country
Visit Grand Canyon
Visit New York City
Visit our sponsored child in Bolivia
Help my parents retire
Buy a huge house with 2-3 acres
Be in a movie
Volunteer
Visist Disney World
Swim with Dolphins
Fly in a hot air balloon
Own and operate a (successful) business

DIY Shadow Box

I found this beautiful thing not too long ago at a yard sale!

Isn't it sweeeet?

I have no idea what it is but i thought that it would make the cutest shadow box ever :)

I had seen this cool art piece on Two Girls Being Crafty and decided to incorporate that into my shadow box, however the word 'family' wouldn't wasn't big enough for all our names, and yes i included the dogs :) how could i not?

I had bought two old scrabble games, one at a yard sale and one at the thrift store, i needed two cause i added alot more letters :)

Before

Lined with scrapbooking paper :)

Getting everything ready

Laying everything out

Ta-Da!!

Isn't it cute? So excited to hang it up today!

1st Year Anniversary!

This past weekend my husby and I got to go away for our 1st year anniversary :) We went to Niagara falls ny side and canada side

Here are some pics from our trip!

To Canada!

View from the Skylon tower

Skylon tower for lunch :)

View from Skylon tower

Flea Market

I had a wonderful and very fun weekend!
Friday, a friend and I got to go to Rogers, Ohio for their huge fleamarket.
We were both very excited to go, plus this is on of the things on my 20 before 25 list :)

We really didn't go with anything certain to buy, I was keeping an eye out for some pretty plates, and pretty much anything that looked good. Unfortunely neither me or my friend ended up buying much. Actually all I ended up buying was strawberries :) There was alot of nice antiques, but nothing that stood out as a good deal.
Oh well, at least I know what its like now :)

What I've Learned From My First Year of Marriage

Today is my 1st year wedding annisversary

I. Honestly. Can't. Believe. It.

I do not know where the time has gone.

I didn't know that a year could fly by so fast.

It seems like just yesterday I was stressing over wedding planning.

Does time speed up as you get older?

In honor of my first complete year of marriage, I would like to share what I have learned.

Chill out
Pick your battles
Don't try to be perfect
House cleaning can wait
Cuddle time is important
The way to a mans heart is through his stomach.
Since his mom never really 'cooked' anything all my stuff is great
Do what you say you will
Its the little things that really matter
My hubsy is a bed hog
I'm not as good as sharing as I thought. lol.
Communciate, when in doubt say it again
Always say thank you
Bite your tongue
LAUGH

Trash-Treasure Find

Please tell me that some of you reading this have found a treasure in the trash before? Anyone? Was out with my friend the other day, we were driving home and i passed a gorgeous shelf out for the trash. I said to my friend 'omg did you see that shelf? that was soooo cute' she had totally missed and we turned around, and after about twenty minutes managed to get it into my car. We know we want to refinish it but haven't started yet, but here is a sneak-peek.

Decorating

So I have been bothered by this blank wall in our bedroom for some time now. I don't like blank walls, I think walls should be filled. Maybe a little toooo filled, but whatever. A couple of weeks ago I spotted this frame out for the trash, i drove past it a couple times and decided to pull over and pick it up.

Isn't it pretty? If you could see it for real you would see that it is hanging by a few last nails. But I love it! So it hung on the wall for a little with nothing in it but I had an idea what to do with it.

Enter these wall decals I found at Michaels awhile ago: