Ice Storms and Bedding

So it is sleeting and snowing outside, accumulating quickly, and we are moving in 2 days!!! Way to keep things, interesting, right? I'm looking at it as an adventure and not as a stressful situation! And that's the attitude I'll keep until I slip down on the ice as I'm carrying a stack of boxes out to the moving truck. ;-)

In home-improvement news, the new carpet got installed today! I haven't seen it in person yet, but Leslie got to check it out, and he made this picture with his phone:

I love it, love it, love it!!!!!

I'm dreaming big about decorations, and I'm actually considering something I never saw myself considering so soon: redecorating our guest bedroom. Right now, it is a Shabby Chic themed room, and don't get me wrong, anything Shabby Chic still has my heart! It is awfully "girly" though, and I would like to have a more gender-neutral guest bedroom. I'm picturing keeping the distressed white dresser, maybe adding in a white iron headboard or some other fabulous flea market headboard, and more modern bedding. I'm a little obsessed with the eclectic look right now, and it works perfectly for me since I'm torn between distressed, vintage and contemporary styles right now! I found this bedding at Target.com. Let me know what you think. I'm kinda loving the color and the brids and tree pattern!

Paint

Where have I been lately, you ask? At our new house...cleaning, sanding, taping and painting!

Closing went swimmingly well. You know how everyone complains about the 6-inch stack of papers you have to sign at closing? Let me tell you the truth...It's really not that bad!! Closing took about an hour, and I was amazed at how un-tired my hand was from signing all the papers. It didn't hit me that we had bought our first house until I heard, "Congratulations!" I didn't even know we had finished signing the paperwork, and our realtor handed us a bottle of bubbly and a $25 giftcard to Lowe's. Our loan officer even came to our closing, which is apparently not a common occurance. Looks like maybe she loves us as much as we grew to love her. ;-)

Ever since closing, we have spent the last 3 days at the house doing all we can to make it OURS. Cleaning wasn't too bad. Unlike most forclosures, our house was left pretty well clean for us. The taping and sanding will wear you out! Painting isn't necessarily tiring, just takes so long to get a room done. Am I complaining? No! This is so fun and it's something we'll never do again...Paint and prepare our first house for us to move in to. The new carpet gets installed this Thursday, fridge is coming Saturday, followed closely behind by US!

Here's a little preview of what we've been doing:

Before: Way too orange

After: Much better...

Stay tuned!

Exposure

Ok, so we are closing on our house in literally 40 minutes, and I am blogging. I just got hit by butterflies. I'm nervous!! But mostly excited. In about an hour, I'll have keys to my own house.

The main reason I'm blogging is to share my excitement over the fact that an article of mine is getting some exposure in the blogging world.

I love that she is thrilled that I wrote about her store, and I'm just thrilled she liked what I wrote and posted it on her blog!

These are exciting times! Have a blessed day!

Shogun

Leslie and I just got home from a great dinner at Shogun with friends. That place never, ever lets me down. I order the same thing every time I go: Salmon & Chicken with Fried Rice. I always leave full and satisfied, and surprisingly, I didn't make myself feel sick this time from eating too much. I think the secret was not eating for hours beforehand and just ignoring hunger pains and all of symptoms of low blood sugar. LOL! No, but seriously...You can't go there and eat your entire plate on a semi-full stomach. That scenario absolutely just cannot happen.

So I am dying to have pictures to post of our house! We're closing in 4 days!!! We have a lot of cosmetic repairs to make, so I'll be sure to make lots of "befores" and "afters." Leslie and I had our final walk-through with our realtor today. Everything looked great, and I was excited just to have an excuse to be in the house. One issue...I bought a dresser at a flea market for $15 (a steal!) with the intention of giving it a makeover then putting it by the front door in the entryway. Realized today while in the house that it will most likely be too big for the space. Totally bummed me out. On the bright side, however, I realized we could use it in our office as extra storage. This just means I'll be painting the dresser a different color than I originally planned to, but I still get to do my project! Is it crazy that I'm super excited to pick out new hardware for it???

I feel like posts are boring without pictures, but bear with me! I promise I have big plans as far as that goes. ;-)

The Time Has Come...

...to start packing. It was ever-so casually brought to my attention yesterday that we are closing on the house in 9 days. It's down to 8 today! Hard to believe, really. I still don't think it's hit me yet! I came home with a car full of boxes thanks to a generous lady I work with. Now I have no more excuses. Leslie can vouch for the fact that I hate packing...seriously, I get like a little kid that has to clean her room...I dilly dally and usually end up getting aggravated whenever we pack for a weekend trip. Don't ask me why. I honestly don't know what it is about packing I dislike so much. Nevertheless, the time has come.

Wow, I can't believe this is really happening!!!

Oh, and I found the cutest canisters and spice rack at Wal-mart of all places! They were exactly what I've been envisioning for my new kitchen and there they were, cheap-priced and everything! I would post a picture but Wal-mart's website doesn't even have them listed. I guess you'll just have to wait...Hopefully, the anticipation won't make you ill! ;-)

Our First House

It's getting closer...and I'm getting really EXCITED!!! I thought I would share some pictures of our house. These are the ones the realtors posted online when the house was for sale. I don't think it's hit me that I'm actually going to live here. I know I don't deserve something so nice, and it humbles me to know that the Lord blessed us with it anyway. So take a tour of our first house! I hope you enjoy it...

Creative Ideas...

So I went to Hobby Lobby today, and like most every other time I go, the angels broke out in harmonious chorus, and the lights shone around me like I was in Heaven. And I got really inspired and all crafty-feeling. I bought some burlap for our Christmas tree skirt next year, as well as a pattern for a Christmas tree skirt. I have extra burlap for the tree topper (a bow or something). I also bought some pillow stuffing for some shabby chic pillows I'm about to make for the guest bedroom out of an old cotton fabric shower curtain. Oh, and I bought an 8x10 canvas for a new project. I got the idea off HGTV. You print a picture off your computer onto iron-transfer paper then iron it onto the canvas. It makes a very unique, aged-looking picture, especially if you print the picture off in sepia or black and white.

I am so thankful for the extended vacation time I've gotten thanks to the snow days because I'm getting to spend time focusing on being creative and on getting organized. I've been doing a lot of the "out with the old," trying to get ready to move into our new house. The less we have to move, the better. And it feels so good to finally have some motivation to get rid of useless old junk that we don't need anymore.

Snow Days

I still get excited about snow days, just like I did when I was a kid! And being that I'm a teacher now, I still get to enjoy the whole "getting-off-work/school-so-I-can-stay-home-and-be-lazy" excitement. Tomorrow was supposed to be the first day of MDO to begin our new semester after Christmas break, but due to snow, it won't be happening. This has been a great, relaxing, fun vacation. Emily and Charlie were here for a couple of weeks, we had a white Christmas, and now more snow! I love snow because it's so pretty and it makes everything outside seem so serene and still. Plus, it gives me a reason to stay in my pj's all day and basically be a hermit! I have to say, being social and having a life is awesome, but snow days...come on, everyone needs one every once in a while. ;-)

Maybe I should start packing tomorrow...?

The Fun Stuff

Carpet has been purchased, wall color options are being decided upon, and appliances will be bought in the near future. I never thought these would be fun things to shop for until I started doing it for my OWN house! After paying a dollar to wash and a dollar to dry for the past two years, not to mention the trek across a parking lot, toting a heavy laundry basket, all the while at the mercy of whatever the weather is acting like that day...I think the thing that excites me the most about having a house is having my very own laundry room!

We'll be closing in 19 days...WOW! Maybe I should start packing some time soon!!!